Mark Howell April 2018
Mar Howell crossed the bar at 0500 on the 7th April 2018 After a long fight with cancer
A few weeks ago I passed information on the sad death of Mark 'Brum' Howell.
Today I received a message from his best mate following Marks funeral today.
He has given permission to share some of speech he gave. RIP Shipmate⚓
"Thank you so much to all who came today and have said such nice things about Mark Howell
A tough and emotional day for so many people . A chance to say goodbye to a wonderful man
The fact that so many people came to say goodbye just showed how many people cared about him and how many people he had made an impact with.
I thought I would just add my words from today for those who couldn’t make it and to read again for those who came
He really would have been so proud !
-
My mate mark
So it ended up taking me some time to write this, naturally not wanting to actually address the facts. Taking the time to write about my mate mark.
For me i often find it easy to just write down what I’m thinking and feeling in that moment and most of anything that i do which people can relate too is off the cuff carried by an emotion towards it.
This was so different.
I want to start by saying that Mark would have been so overwhelmed by the support you all have shown and love for him here today but mainly as he struggled over the last year dealing with the cancer. It meant a lot and the messages of support were something that made such a huge difference in his fight . You truly know who your friends are in times like this and mark loved being around so many positive people and although it was hard you all made it better when it mattered
-
I’ve known mark for many years now , he was guy at the gym who needed some help and I was more than happy to see how many burpees he could do in a minute, then a track then just as many as he could before he gave up. He never gave up! I soon realised what sort of a person I was dealing with here and knew adherence wouldn’t be an issue (unlike the rest) and also that we would become good friends
We became just that and after an absence from the gym we got back into the swing of things to help Mark with his nutrition and specifically the half marathon or should I say the dreaded half marathon. Something neither of us were partial too. When he walked back in (with the diary) it soon became apparent that mark was serious , he had the positive outlook and the attitude you need to succeed , oh and the diary , we can’t forget the diary a log of anything and everything, I will miss the diary !
If I could describe mark I would say he was courageous, content , caring, kind, thoughtful, loyal , hard working, dedicated, funny , intelligent and many more things that made him just a top top bloke. I will miss him
We often chatted about all things in life , things that you only speak about with your good friends and people you trust, i could trust mark 100% and people like him are rare believe me.
He was content and often quite. But we laughed hard as we put the world to rights , spoke about the past , present , and the future and we didn’t change even when the news came in.
West Brom , his wife Jackie ,his children and grandchildren , his training, his thoughts on health , his interest in travel and turkey with his diving ,something I had no clue about but cared to listen and appreciate his passions.
He had lots of thing be enjoyed too, coffee, vanilla latte, cakes and football chat, his training was his passion and his friends from the Nuffield
All in all he was just a great bloke, with a good life. One that in-spite of some hard times a life that he said to me he was happy with,even in hospital could turn to me and tell me he had a good life. What a man! What an outlook and what a perspective. I’ve learnt a lot from him. A true measure of a true gentleman who I am honoured to have been able to speak about and honoured to have called my friend, our friend.
The bastard cancer.
The bastard cancer. If there was a war then you won hands down my mate mark. Hands down! For how you fought it, how you took it on, how you never gave up and how you always laughed when deep down you probably just wanted to cry.
We are all better people in here for how you handled it , no doubt about it. Personally all things we talked about I’m going to do for you that’s a promise.
I would say he wouldn’t want us to be sad today that wasn’t him. So let celebrate his life and the fortune we have all had of knowing him
Mark we will miss you , gone but not forgotten."