My husband, Leo, and I are fortunate to have known and been friends with both Mark and Cheryl for the 33 years we lived in Tulsa. They were both so friendly and outgoing that even when we first met them, we felt as if we'd known them for years. We went to their home for numerous meetings, covered dish dinners, or just to visit with them and other good friends, and we always felt so welcome. We all four served on the Zionic Relations Committee years ago, and that always included a meeting at the home of one of the members of the committee, followed by a dinner. One night the meeting was at our home and it was short, so we broke out the croquet game and set up some horrible obstacles to make it more difficult. By the time we were finishing the game, it was almost totally dark, which made it all the more challenging…and fun. We discussed stopping the game, but Mark assured us it should definitely be finished…even though we had to do it with flashlights. And as we recall, he MAY have been in the lead!! Cheryl just laughed and shook her head as the game continued. Our neighbors told us later it sounded as if we were having so much fun they almost came over. You could always count on lots and lots of laughs when you were with Cheryl and Mark. But if the subject being discussed was a serious one, you knew you had their full attention and received good advice when it was needed. They truly cared about people, and even though they both led such busy lives, on every occasion when we asked one or the other of them to do us a favor, we KNEW we could count on a "Sure, I'd be happy to do it." When someone was sick, they would frequently be the first people to turn up with a meal fit for a king, and you just hoped you had room enough in your refrigerator for all of it. For several years, we four and the Buchmans prepared a meal once a month for the older members of the congregation, and it was called Young At Heart. We would meet for dinner the night before to discuss the preparation of the meal, how much food we should fix, whether or not the muffins should contain jalapena peppers!!!!, and what activity was going to follow the meal. All six of us were working full-time jobs during those years, but the time we spent together preparing the meal and cleaning up afterwards was actually fun…even if one didn't enjoy cooking. I remember on more than one occasion sitting with Cheryl discussing something that was a concern to me, and you always knew you had her undivided attention. And as someone else mentioned, no subject was off limits. Even if we disagreed, there was never a minute of anger or judgment shown by her. We simply agreed to disagree, and a minute later we would be laughing about something silly. We remember with much happiness the years when several weeks before Christmas names provided by Cheryl would be hanging from a Christmas tree at church, and people would go forward to take a name from the tree. Each tag had a short list of gifts the person needed or wanted for Christmas. A few times there weren't enough names on the tree for all those who were drawing a name. But we could always count on Cheryl to come up with more names of people for everyone who wished to provide gifts. Then the Sunday before Christmas, all the gifts would be carried up and placed under the tree at church. It was always one of the highlights of the Christmas season for Leo and me. We were friends with Cheryl and Mark for the 33 years we lived in Tulsa, and we kept in touch by email with her and occasionally phone calls during the 5 years we've lived in Independence, MO. Even when Cheryl became ill, she always had the same hearty laugh when we talked and told us over and over how much she missed us. The same can be said about how much we missed spending time with her and Mark. Health problems on our end prevented us from visiting Cheryl, but we assured her that she and Mark, as well as Joy and Paul, were in our prayers daily. And keeping in touch frequently by email was a big help and always made us still fee
