Stories
Mark: 'One of Those Truly Good, Good Men'
Mark was a quiet man who didn't like to be the center of attention. Yet after Mark died in 2006 at age 56, the victim of a drunk driver, his wife received notes and letters from people she had never met, telling how he had touched their lives during his rounds as a mail carrier.
"A young receptionist at a hair salon wrote to tell me how his smile brightened her day, every day," Kendra Berkeland recalls. "He smiled at people all the time. It sounds so simple to say, but he was one of those truly good, good men. He made so many people happy and he didn't even know it."
Mark smiled at countless people during 30-some years on the job, and of course his smile continues to be missed by his close-knit family. He and Kendra were married 35 years and have three adult children. He was a dog lover, too. Stella, their Newfoundland, was born without a hip socket and she couldn't walk normally. "Mark carried Stella up the stairs each night so she wouldn't have any pain," Kendra says, "until she got to be 80 pounds."
Mark and Kendra had discussed his wish to be a tissue donor: "He was an avid reader, watched sports on TV, and loved to spend time on our property near Silver Bay where we planned to retire. It meant so much to him to pursue those activities that he wanted to give the gift of sight to others." Mark was a tissue donor, and both of his corneas were transplanted; so this good, good man continues to touch lives in a most meaningful way.
Mark and Stella, his beloved Newfoundland.