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Letters to the NAMES Project Page 2
Panel maker: Ron Bush, Orlando, FL In memory of Mark Cardwell
7 September 1987
In Memory of Mark Cardwell
Mark Douglas Cardwell. Where does a person begin to describe someone as
special as Mark was to many members of Joy Metropolitan Community Church in
Orlando, Florida, and to the members of my deacon family.
Mark was the first member of our church to die from complications of AIDS.
For many of us he was the first person we knew that had the disease. When he was
diagnosed in the spring of 1984, many members of the church did not know who he
was. By the time he died at the age of 31 on June 1, 1986, almost everyone in the
church knew him. Mark brought home to us the realization of our own mortality.
The night the members of my deacon family gathered to make this panel in
memory of Mark, a young woman named Michelle said the word that comes to
mind when she thinks of Mark is courage. At a time when there was even less
known about AIDS than there is now, he had the courage to be interviewed on
television, to go on radio talk shows, and to be written about in the newspaper as a
person with AIDS. He had the courage to start the first support group in Orlando for
people with AIDS, and to keep it going until his health forced him to stop. He gave
us the courage to not be afraid to reach out and touch.
Mark was a fighter. There were numerous times in his last year that many of
us did not think he would live another day, much less a week or a month. The next
day would come and Mark was still with us, clinging tenaciously to life, fighting for
every last minute he could have. He was fighting not only for life, but also against
the indifference of government to the plight of people with AIDS and the
indifference of bar owners who were afraid that promoting safe sexual practices
would hurt business.
Mark was compassionate. He had heard the words of Jesus to love God above
all else and then to love your brothers and sisters as yourself. He was a loyal and
dedicated member of Joy MCC. there were times he probably would have been moreThe NAMES Project Washington, D.C. Display October 6-10
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NAMES Project. [Letters: the NAMES Project], letter, 1988; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc948255/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.