For a handsome, virile, red blooded, Irish Catholic-American, full-on heterosexual boy, Mark Ferrick was the best girlfriend I ever had. I say that lovingly, from the heart. We met at such an exciting time; both of us in the flush of adolescence, in an era when cultural changes and our own impending maturity promised so much, teasing us with the hope that our dreams, even those as yet unformulated, would be delivered as we wished them to be.
Mark was a gifted musician, creative and driven and generous with his burgeoning talent. Like so many people touched with an innate gift, his blessing was also his undoing. It compelled his path in life, offering challenges that ultimately proved greater than was his ability to overcome them. He was vulnerable, flawed and completely genuine behind his artifice of cool. I’m not certain if Mark knew how funny he was, which for me, was part of his charm. “I’ll always appreciate that relationship”, he confided in me, referring to the most recent in a series of fetching lovelies he romanced...and then the punch line: “After all, she turned me on to Lancome products.”
We opened a window for each other, sharing the hidden, private realities of our genders, as we understood them to be: this is what girls are like; this is what boys are like. Each placed the other in a valued position of trust, and that trust lasted throughout our friendship. His loss demonstrated that the world simply existed as it was, and not as we wished it to be.
Bethann Wolin
For a handsome, virile, red blooded, Irish Catholic-American, full-on heterosexual boy, Mark Ferrick was the best girlfriend I ever had. I say that lovingly, from the heart. We met at such an exciting time; both of us in the flush of adolescence, in an era when cultural changes and our own impending maturity promised so much, teasing us with the hope that our dreams, even those as yet unformulated, would be delivered as we wished them to be.
Mark was a gifted musician, creative and driven and generous with his burgeoning talent. Like so many people touched with an innate gift, his blessing was also his undoing. It compelled his path in life, offering challenges that ultimately proved greater than was his ability to overcome them. He was vulnerable, flawed and completely genuine behind his artifice of cool. I’m not certain if Mark knew how funny he was, which for me, was part of his charm. “I’ll always appreciate that relationship”, he confided in me, referring to the most recent in a series of fetching lovelies he romanced...and then the punch line: “After all, she turned me on to Lancome products.”
We opened a window for each other, sharing the hidden, private realities of our genders, as we understood them to be: this is what girls are like; this is what boys are like. Each placed the other in a valued position of trust, and that trust lasted throughout our friendship. His loss demonstrated that the world simply existed as it was, and not as we wished it to be.
His loss changed me.
Susan Berman
Bethann-
What a beautiful tribute to Mark... I miss him dearly, and mourn his loss along with all who were fortunate enough to know him.
Susan Berman