07/31/2019
From Patti Slaughter:
Patti Slaughter
The other day I ended a post with a mic drop, but today, I'm picking that microphone back up. I have a loud voice that I need to amplify to everyone who has been a part of this journey since August 1st of last year 2018. This microphone is needed to amplify my otherwise quiet voice and call to attention your ears, heart, and a moment of your time. The last 48 hours have been all consuming for a person that has brought such Joy To Life. This is about a beautiful person who you all know as Mark .... "Conforti" to some, to me he will forever be ...."My Mark". There has been a change in plans and his fight on the Leukemia battlefield has come to a heart wrenching end. He has, rather suddenly, been called to a greater Duty. So many have followed us into battle, you have been by our side through it all....and I feel the respect for Mark and me. I am here to tell you all how thankful we are for every single thoughtful prayer. I will have many emotions over the next couple of days and I am going to try my best to not post them. That's not what this is about. Mark is so well-loved, and I cannot completely touch all of the hearts that he has touched. So you can read between the lines. Yesterday was not good. Mark had a massive brain bleed. This acute occurrence happenend so suddenly there was nothing anybody could do. Neuro surgeons did their best to save him....and after fighting for so long, Mark's body could not handle the damage and he passed peacefully last night, surrounded in all the warmth and love of friends and family. I can't even begin to tell you the shock that I am feeling, and that same feeling of knowing that you all will feel it too. The best thing about Facebook in any source of social media is the mass amount of people who are touched by certain life altering events and the expression of it in a passionate post. I want it to be more intimate that that. I want this to be something that you all feel that I have sent to you individually. I want you to know that each and every one of you has made this fight easier. The competion didn't play fair but Mark went out like a true soldier, a strong, committed, loving man. Surrounded by his West Point brothers and sisters, family and friends we sang the last verse of the alma mater as Mark slipped away from us....
And when our work is done,
Our course on earth is run,
May it be said, 'Well Done;
Be Thou At Peace.'
E'er may that line of gray
Increase from day to day,
Live, serve, and die, we pray,
West Point, for thee.
*Funeral/Memorial TBA soon*
