What Made Mark Special
Mark was unapologetically himself and had admirable self-confidence. He was not afraid to be who he was and to show the world the real Mark. He took great pride in being himself and didn’t care about others’ judgments. He was comfortable in his own skin, loved himself, and knew that he was a good person. Whenever we asked Mark how his day was, his reply was always, without fail — a genuine and excited “good” paired with his beautiful smile.
Sincerity and compassion were qualities that Mark had naturally since birth. If he saw anyone get hurt, he would be the first to run to them to offer help and a kind word. Mark was a master at noticing and honing in on the smallest, yet most significant details. He would see qualities in people and the world that most of us do not notice.
The Kindest, Most Compassionate Soul
Mark was resiliently happy and had an ability to always find something positive about any person and any situation. He had a rare talent of finding the beauty in everyone and enjoying the moment — attributes that made him mature beyond his years.
Mark was kind and was always ready with a compliment or a kind word for his family, friends, and peers. He had so much patience for everyone. Even if someone was not nice to him, he forgave them immediately. Mark was an amazing friend and always saw the good in everyone. He was loyal, always ready to listen, and never wanted to see anyone upset.
Mark made everyone feel special. When you were with Mark, you felt listened to. He would ask questions and let you know that he was listening and seeing you for who you really are (especially the good parts). Everyone felt confident and important around Mark, because he truly cared and valued every human connection. Mark saw right to the heart of everyone and knew if someone’s confidence or self-esteem needed a little boost. He would often sit with fellow students who were eating lunch alone, talk to them, and befriend them. He became fast friends with everyone, especially with those who were different, and wanted everyone to feel included. Mark would often share his extra PTA pizza slice with two friends. One day, four friends were vying for the slice. Mark felt so awful and didn’t want to disappoint or exclude anyone from eating the pizza. A teacher suggested cutting the pizza into four slices, and Mark was beaming with joy that he was able to make everyone happy.
Mark’s inner and outer beauty were often in competition with each other. He had a beautiful face, big blue eyes, an angelic smile, and seriously gorgeous hair. He was incredibly, emotionally mature and would talk to random people everywhere we went. Whomever it was, stranger or not, every interaction with Mark led to mutual happiness and a smile. Whenever we took an elevator, by the third floor, Mark had made friends with everyone in there.
When it came to sharing toys with his brothers, Mark wouldn’t even wait to be asked and gladly gave up his favorite toy to Evan or Sam, because nothing made him feel better than making someone else happy. As a mom to three boys, I had my moments of frustration, but Mark would always make me feel better. Even at seven years old, he would notice, bring me chocolate, and say, “Here Mum mum, you need this.”
Mark loved hugs and was the warmest hugger. He was so skilled at diffusing bad situations and was impossible to be upset with. He would walk over to me, staring with his big blue, beautiful eyes, say, “I’m sorry,” and give you the biggest hug. He always hugged like he meant it, and all his words came straight from his big and beautiful heart.
Adventurer with a Love for the Natural World
Mark had such a vast number of interests because he had a great love and appreciation of life. Because he was so creative, he was never bored. He enjoyed exploring the world on his own and loved touching and smelling everything. He particularly enjoyed being outside — digging in the dirt and discovering all the critters in the soil. Often, Mark would come home from school and his favorite royal blue coat with a fur-lined hood looked like it was dragged through the mud, and we would ask, “What happened to your coat? We just washed it yesterday.”
Mark would respond, “Oh, I tripped” or “Oh, I fell” and there we were washing his coat almost on a daily basis. Unbeknownst to us, Mark would often hide the fact that he was actually playing in the dirt. During recess, Mark loved digging holes around a giant pin oak tree on his school grounds. Eventually, he was able to recruit his classmates to dig right alongside him. Their goal was to dig the hole so large that the tree would eventually fall onto the school and they would all get the day off and have a fun story to tell. At some point, Mark and his classmates had dug the hole next to the tree so large that the school principal had to have a dump truck deliver soil to refill it.
But because Mark was born to OCD parents who both work in the medical field and are anxious people at baseline, he didn’t want to worry us about his outdoor adventures. Whenever we told him not to play in the dirt, he didn’t argue. He would just say, “Okay, Mum mum and Dada” in the sweetest tone. At ten years old, he still affectionately called us Mum mum and Dada, something we’ll always cherish.
Despite our cautious tendencies, we tried to let Mark indulge in his fascination with the natural world whenever possible. He truly enjoyed stopping to smell the roses and always looked forward to our family walks in the neighborhood or hiking on a trail. He especially loved visiting the botanical gardens. Every time we passed a jungle gym, Mark begged us to go in. As a busy family of five, we were always in a rush to go from point A to point B. But we’re so glad that he got his way 40 percent of the time. He loved to run, jump, and climb. One of Mark’s favorite places to visit were aerial adventure parks and ziplining, and he loved the feeling of soaring above. He also loved swimming and diving in the oceans and cenotes. He was always ready to explore and up for the next adventure.
A Naturally Curious Student
Mark truly loved school and was so eager to learn. He could not wait to start his day and go to school. He would sometimes downplay not feeling well so that we would send him to school and he wouldn’t miss a day. Not only was he excited about learning new things, but he also loved socializing with friends of all ages at his elementary school.
Mark’s favorite subjects were mathematics and physical education. He also enjoyed Spanish, the sciences, and music. Mark played double bass in the school orchestra and took his love of learning to play music very seriously. He had an impressive vocabulary and was an excellent speller (in English, Greek, and Spanish). He even broke the school record in Spanish charades.
Mark had a great interest and curiosity in all living things, the Earth, and especially outer space. He had a brilliant mind, but he did not try to impress you with his intellect. He would often say the most insightful things that left us astonished. We would ask, “Mark, how do you know that?” He would explain that he saw it in a Youtube video or read it in a book. He was really into exploration and engineering and loved asking questions. Because Mark wanted to learn and know everything — as much as he possibly could — he loved doing his own experiments and going to museums. He loved to learn by talking to people and being out in the world with others.
To complement his real-world experiences, Mark LOVED reading non-fiction books about nature and the Earth. He was also a huge fan of Harry Potter and adventure stories, and enjoyed the classics and science fiction. The last book Mark was reading was Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, which he absolutely LOVED! Some of our favorite memories of Mark are reading to him while snuggling and sniffing the sweet scent of his gorgeous hair.
Mark wanted to be a surgeon when he grew up. This career would suit him since he was always interested in exploring and getting his hands dirty. His second choice of career was to be a Disney Imagineer or roller coaster designer.
Agility of More than the Mind
Everyone was always in awe of Mark’s energy and enthusiasm. He was almost never at rest (except when watching a long movie) and loved to be in motion. Mark wasn’t a big fan of competitive or team sports, but he excelled in gymnastics and rock climbing because of his agility and flexibility. He also took up diving, which combined his two favorites — water and gymnastics. The coach and Mark’s dad were so proud of him because of his fearlessness of trying new dives. In between dives, Mark loved hanging out in the hot tub, socializing with his teammates, and making them laugh.
Mark did a year of fencing but didn’t like “fighting” others. That type of combat mentality didn't suit him, as he was all about gentleness and compassion. But, he did love wearing all the fencing gear. In gymnastics, Mark’s coach was impressed with his flexibility and upper body and core strength. In rock climbing, Mark was able to get to the top of the climbing wall with ease and named some climbs that he was the first to summit. (He named one climb, “There’s gum stuck on my shoe.”) Mark also did some horseback riding, Taekwondo, and soccer. In summer camp, Mark enjoyed playing Gaga, which is a type of dodgeball game in a large sandbox. He loved playing in jungle gyms, ever since he was very little, and absolutely loved ropes courses.
Traveling with Mark was so easy because he never complained and was always entertained by observing every detail around him. He loved flying in airplanes and relished the whole travel experience. Internationally, we took family trips to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Greece, and France. Locally, we took the boys to Boston, Philadelphia, California, Florida, and Washington, DC. Mark always wanted to go to Hawaii and Australia because he absolutely loved water, beaches, and nature.
Mark’s favorite place was Disney World. He enjoyed the sensory overload and had such a great sense of humor. His favorite ride was originally Space Mountain, but he later found his favorite in Tron when it finally finished construction. Mark loved playing in the pool with his brothers at Stormalong Bay, meeting new people, and making new friends. He loved eating at all the themed restaurants (his favorites were Garden Grill and Space 220 at Epcot) and shopping at all the stores. One of Mark’s favorite trips was our adventure on the Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser. This was a role-playing type of cruise, and Mark’s persona was a Porg farmer. (He was actually a spy for the dark side who tried to stop the rebels.) On our family trip to Disneyland in Anaheim, Mark came down with the flu, but he still loved it there so much and had a radiant smile on his face the whole time.
Traveling with Mark was so much fun, and he was quick to do as natives would do. He learned to explore cultures through experiencing art, tasting the local cuisine, and observing and participating in local life.
Mark loved our family vacation to Greece and had an appreciation for the delicious food and beautiful beaches. He snorkeled and dove in the calm, clear Mediterranean and loved to discover life in an underwater world. He became an expert in diving for sea urchins. He would surface from the crystal clear water and enthusiastically tell us about his adventures underwater and show us everything he saw.
Mark truly appreciated the easy and low-stress living of the Greek islands, where everyone knew everyone else and the people valued human connection and interaction. It was like Mark had finally found his crowd. He adored all the laughs and adventures as we discovered historical ruins, watched operas at the Acropolis, dined on rooftop terraces to European techno music, participated in shadow puppet plays, zoomed around the pier park in miniature electric cars, and even got fish pedicures. Mark was equally happy doing kid things as he was excited about engaging in sophisticated experiences. The best travel buddy anyone could have ever asked for. And, of course, he brought and shared such a fun, wholesome and unique perspective to whatever it was that we were doing, often resulting in us laughing, smiling, and just having a good time. We would sometimes send Mark about 200 feet from our beach cabin to go and get some frappe (ridiculously strong Greek iced coffee), and he would bring it back to us with half of it missing. But it was impossible to be mad at him.
Mark loved performing in school plays and took his roles very seriously. He was Daddy Warbucks in Annie in the third grade, the main guard, Razoul, in Aladdin in the fourth grade, and Cogsworth in Beauty and Beast in the fifth grade. Mark took great pride in his play performances and roles and would often remain in character at home and make us all laugh. Even on Halloween, Mark would take on the character of whatever costume he was wearing. He loved dressing up and playing the part and found so much joy in acting.
Mark’s interests in the arts extended to the visual arts including drawing and sculpting. As Mark was getting older, his technical skills really matured and improved and his creativity truly soared. We loved complimenting Mark on his amazing artwork and inspiring him to make more. He was especially good at putting colors together and making artwork that was so pleasing to the eye.
Mark’s experiences in life — from his travels to his play performances to his explorations in nature — inspired him to write poetry. With his empathic and sensitive nature, Mark was a natural and impressive poet. He wrote his poems with such ease, and we truly had no idea how talented he was at this craft. We feel so lucky to have these poems that give us a glimpse into how Mark saw the beauty in the world.
Talented Artist & Patron of the Arts
Museums, zoos, aquariums, traveling exhibits, and landmarks — Mark loved them all. He would often run around with excitement from exhibit to exhibit as we would try to read plaques and teach him. But Mark was able to keenly observe the artwork, portrayal, or diorama and remember them in great detail years later, sharing his impressive insights. Mark was certainly a sensory learner who learned best through experience and observation.
Mark had a huge and unique imagination. He loved to write poetry, make art, play the double bass and piano and use his hands to create. He absolutely LOVED going to shows — Broadway shows, puppet shows, bubble shows, street shows, and parades, you name it! Often, Mark’s brothers were not as enthused as he was about going to shows; but Mark’s palpable excitement, curiosity, and joy in experiencing something new impacted everyone. We have enjoyed so many wonderful family experiences and have so many memories, all thanks to Mark and his positive and convincing attitude. It was so hard to say “no” to that happy smile.
Mark really enjoyed music and would learn lyrics after hearing a song only once. He had a beautiful singing voice, even though singing wasn’t his favorite. He loved learning to play the piano (pre-covid) and then moved on to playing the double bass (post-covid), which he excelled at. We took Mark to orchestra concerts, and he adored listening and watching the ensemble play. He could hear all the instruments and tell us which ones were playing at any given moment. “I can hear the viola playing right now, Mom,” he would say. He had a talent for finding the pitch on his double bass and played in both his elementary school orchestra and his Greek School orchestra.
An Empath to People and Animals
Mark would always ask for toys that were for ages 0-3. We thought it was strange, but those are the toys that made him the happiest. Nothing complex, just joyful like him. Mark especially loved to play with smaller children and babies. He was so gentle and kind. The parents would praise him to us, and we would blush with pride. He was mature enough to play with his age group and his older brother, but silly enough to play with his younger brother. Mark’s brothers miss him and feel such a huge loss. As the middle child, he was the missing link between them.
Mark was an awesome cat brother and dearly loved his two cats and his goldfish. He found them so amusing and received so much joy from playing with them and watching them do their silly cat antics. Mark always wanted a dog, (specifically a Pomeranian) but we didn’t give in. He would ask if we would ever babysit his dog if he were to get one when he was older and of course, we said, “Yes!” That was good enough for him.
Mark really enjoyed going to zoos and learning about animals. His favorite was the petting zoo where he could interact with them. He was always so gentle and sweet with all animals and appreciated all kinds (even the insects.) Mark believed that all lives, no matter how miniscule, were so precious and important in their own way. He respected nature and really cared about conservation and maintaining the environment for all lives to enjoy.
A Born Foodie
Mark loved everything about food — learning about ingredients, preparing new dishes, and of course, eating. He had a highly sensitive nose and palate and could smell aromas minutes before us. One of his talents was identifying every ingredient used in a dish after tasting it — spices and all.
Mark also truly appreciated and enjoyed the art of cooking. Mark’s favorite toy was an elaborate toy kitchen that he customized with a barbeque and hibachi grill. He would spend hours preparing us these beautiful toy meals. If they weren’t plastic, we would have eaten them — the colors and presentation were so impressive.
Mark loved watching his Yiayia (Grandma) cooking in the kitchen. As he got older, Mark started taking cooking classes both at school and at the mall. He was a natural chef, and we were always so happy and grateful to eat the delicious food he prepared with love and pride. Mark was truly inspired to create the most delicious meals and took great pride in his meal presentation. He had so much fun experimenting with food and different flavors. Two of his best dishes were stuffed shells and empanadas.
Mark entered a cupcake making contest at school and won a prize for most unique cupcake. It was around St. Patrick’s Day, and Mark created “pot o’gold” cupcakes with a sprinkle confetti filling and mint flavored icing. They were sweet, delicious, and colorful.
Mark did not shy away from trying anything. Whenever we went out to dinner, Mark loved ordering exotic food, such as squid ink pasta, escargot, alligator skewers, and rabbit. He even ate a cricket once at a museum! Without fail, he would always order the craziest thing on the menu. Of course, Dad would be stuck eating what he ordered 95 percent of the time, and we would order Mark something else. It used to upset us, but now, we would eat anything to have him back.
Creative Video Gamer & Virtual Builder
Like most kids his age, Mark enjoyed playing video games, specifically on the iPad with his brothers and cousins. His two favorite games were Minecraft and Roblox. In Minecraft, Mark loved building floating UFOs/spaceships in creative mode. He would give himself all the best gear and build houses with his brothers. Mark’s older brother Sam recalls playing a house flipping/selling game together where they would find a village and “renovate” the houses and buy them from each other for emeralds until the whole village was decked out with large, two-story houses, and they were both rich.
In Roblox, his two favorite games were Cart Ride Around Nothing — which is exactly what it sounds like — and Theme Park Tycoon 2. Sam remembers Mark playing and driving along a roller coaster track through the wide open sky. He spent lots of Robux on cosmetic purchases including a supercar themed cart. Mark primarily played Theme Park Tycoon 2 with his brothers, as well as Bee Swarm Simulator. His most popular ride was a wild mouse coaster, and he also had a log flume and a wooden roller coaster.
Mark preferred movies over TV shows, but he also loved watching Star Wars, The Simpsons, Is it Cake?, The Great British Baking Show, and The Floor is Lava. He loved his kid movies, but also enjoyed action, sci-fi, and horror. On YouTube, Mark would watch Iron Chef Dad, survivalist videos, videos about fishing, and as an amusement park enthusiast — POV roller coaster rides. Because Mark enjoyed building and creating things himself, he liked watching a Minecraft content creator who made videos about building a factory network as well as another YouTuber who was creating a Lego city. Mark truly appreciated all creativity and loved getting lost in different worlds.
Family & School Jokester
The first thing everyone remembers when they think of Mark is his big beautiful smile — an expression he wore almost 100% of the time. Mark was always happy and always wanted to spread smiles and share joy. He was also silly. Nothing made Mark happier than making others laugh, usually at his own expense. He loved getting fun reactions from people and would do the craziest things just to be able to laugh together with everyone.
Mark would find something humorous in every situation. He would go down the slide during recess and purposefully rub his head on the plastic on the way down so that his hair would stick up with static. All his friends would laugh, and he would wear that awesome smile, knowing he made others happy. At school lunch, he would mix different foods together such as mayo and ketchup with rice and eat it (or at least try it) to get a rise out of everyone. Mark’s cute little laugh and huge smile were contagious and immediately put everyone in a fun and silly mood.
Sitting in the back of our silver minivan, Mark and his two brothers would laugh and make jokes (more often than not, about fart jokes.) One of them would say, “Whoever smelt it, dealt it,” or “Whoever said the rhyme, did the crime”. Eventually, they tried to invent new ones and Mark came up with, “Whoever sharted it, farted it.” We were laughing for a long, long time and continue to laugh about it to this day.
Mark was creative and witty. He loved nuisances because he found humor in everything. Almost nothing would upset him because he would distinctly focus on the humor in every situation. He especially loved to make fun of his dad and his brothers, but always in a wholesome way that would make everyone laugh.
Wise Beyond His Years
Mark had an amazing energy. He was so vivacious, full of life, and never took anything for granted. Mark appreciated everything that the world had to offer, which made it really easy for us to want to spoil him. He always said thank you and had the best manners — we never even had to teach him.
Mark had so many unique qualities and beautiful gifts that he bestowed upon all who knew him. His gifts of showing people love and kindness, being himself, being curious and positive, and reminding us to explore and appreciate the world are so special and will never be forgotten.
Mark was creative, smart, and wise beyond his years. He had endless curiosity, was an adventurer, had an amazing sense of humor, and was always happy, smiling, and optimistic. He taught us more in 10 years than we could have taught him in our lifetime. Mark knew what was most important in life — LOVE and KINDNESS. He gave us all so many gifts and inspired us to always strive to be the best versions of ourselves.
If you have stories or photos of Mark that you would like to share, please email them to info@markshaparinfoundation.org. His family would love to see them.