Vendor Mark Read Was a Free Spirit
By Delores Manley
My husband, Mark E. Read, passed away on March 2, 2012. It was very sudden. I miss his compassion, love, security, and friendship. His last job was the Street Chronicle Newspaper. He was a very helpful man before he passed away.
Mark used to work at the University Settlement on East 49th Street in Cleveland back in the early ‘90s. He was the best cook at the settlement. He made very excellent meals for the homeless. Mark also did home remodeling for the University Settlement, making sure that the property was safe for the families that were in the housing. He also did remodeling for the son of the Lavert family, a famous singing family, who lived in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
My husband was also a landscaper and a carpet cleaner. He worked hard and loved making yards beautiful and helping people out on fixed incomes. Mark knew how to talk to people professionally and homeless people on the street. He also traveled to South Carolina and other places outside of Ohio to do his work.
Mark also was a limousine driver for a limo service in the late ‘80s. As a matter of fact, that is how I met him. He drove for a lot of famous people like Eddie Murphy, Martha Baxter-Burney, when they came into town. Mark was a hard worker until he got a brain tumor, and that is what slowed him down.
My last words for the paper are I really truly miss him very much. We were a normal couple. We did fight, but it was so he would stay out of mischief and getting hurt. Someone told somebody that the Saturday after he died, I was laughing about his death. This is not true. I married Mark because I loved him. He was a sweet person. I never thought my husband would leave so quickly. We were not a perfect couple, but I do dearly miss his smile, his love, and his companionship. I will see him again when the time comes.