Mark passed away on July 8, 2023 at Vancouver General Hospital surrounded by friends, family and Keisha, after holding out as long as he could against cancer.
Mark was born in May of 1970 in Salmon Arm,BC. He was an active member of the Vancouver Eastside Vineyard Church, where he loved helping to cook meals and holiday dinners for his community. Since 2010, Mark’s life was filled with love for his dog Keisha, who accompanied him everywhere he went. You wouldn’t see Mark without Keisha.
Mark is survived by his daughter Andrea and her husband David; his grandson Luca; his brother Scott Perry and his wife Brandy; his sister Rae and her husband Brad; his sister Shannon and her husband David; and his beloved dog Keisha. Mark was preceded in death by his adoptive parents, Marliss and Gordon Perry.
Mark requested in lieu of a service, please donate to an animal rescue of your choice in honour his love for animals and Keisha.
3 Comments
Shannon Guiboche
Mark was an amazing, passionate individual who, paradoxically, was usually quiet and focused. A listener and a see-er, as well as a good storyteller. His interests were vaeiwd but animals topped thwm all, and his dog Keisha topped all other animals. It was a priveledge to know Mark and share a part of his life in Vancouver.
Doreen Burke
Mark you will be surely missed as well as Keisha! We all grew to Love you and Keishas fashions! I hope your at peace now and no more pain! Sending Condolences to your family! I will always remember you! Thank you for getting me through my head on car crash in 2010 and becoming friends on Facebook.
Jeff Caron
I met Mark in Victoria during the Fall of 1990. I was 16 at that time. We were coworkers at Denny’s.
For a while we both worked the graveyard shift and we became best friends.
One night we were working and got slammed for bar rush and we were both stressing and flying around the kitchen – normally we had an excellent rhythm and could handle the rush but that night Mark sliced his thumb badly while cutting a Patty Melt with the serated knife. The manager had to drive him to the hospital and I was left alone on the line and as they were leaving I yelled to Mark “I hope you know this counts as your half hour break!” Haha he later told me he could’ve throttled me for saying that LMAO. He came back with a bunch of stitches.
We shared a mutual love of music and would spend hours listening to Genesis, Yes, Rush, even Stevie Nicks.
I remember sitting at his old place on Cook St he introduced me to the music of Marillion Script for a Jester’s Tear and to this day that band is very special to me and I’ve never stopped listening to them.
We would light candles and incense, and enjoy the finest herbage while discussing the metaphysical properties of crystals.
Mark had a car – a small Chevette. The car had a unique look – brown with orange trim. It was only a 4-cylinder (gutless – his words) and he would often lament not having his previous car – a Chevy Nova which featured the 450- Rocket engine. He mentioned it often.
He would drive us around and we’d stop at Mt Tolmie, or Gorge Park, or the Dallas Road breakwater and walk the trails appreciating nature.
A few times we even drove to Nanaimo just for kicks. We used to take stale bread from work and at 7:00am on a weekday head to the Colquitz River along Interurban Road to feed the ducks.
A funny story, Mark and his girlfriend were moving to a bigger place and of course I helped them move but the only thing I remember is Mark had a large couch that wouldn’t fit into his Chevette, so he and I carried it on foot to the new place. Yea we actually walked it over the whole distance and would stop to rest and just set the couch on the sidewalk and have a little sit down!
During my teen years 16-19 I seemed to be perpetually depressed and I had some serious personal difficulties that overwhelmed me. Through genuine friendship Mark pulled me back from the darkest places I had set my mind, and although he couldn’t wave a magic wand and make the world perfect, his steady companionship was enough to keep me alive to face another day.
I moved away from Victoria in 1995 and lost touch with Mark, but somehow we reconnected very briefly a year later. I was living in Burnaby and he was passing through and needed a place to crash so he slept in my living room one night. He had a huge dog that wasn’t allowed into the apartment building that he had to leave in the car and he was extremely pained to have to do that that night.
After that we truly lost touch and we never spoke or saw each other again.
Today 29 years later I happen to be visiting Victoria and I just looked him up on FB only to discover his obituary from 2 years ago and that he had been living in Vancouver where I’ve been living this whole time. You can say I’m utterly gutted right now and memories are flooding in right now.
RIP Mark old friend, and thank you.