Remembering an unforgettable character.

We had been married for two years when Mark gave me this Bible for my birthday. He signed it “Love Mark”, but most of the time when he gave me a card, he would sign it “Your (or in the case below, “youre”) husband, Mark Tracy”.

Once in a while, lest I become confused, he would add his middle name. I always found his messy penmanship endearing, even though, like the teacher I was, I would always tell him to use his “best handwriting” if he had to sign something important. During the last few years of his life, Mark would leave random, and sometimes hilarious, voicemails on my phone while I was at work, and I’ve been able to save most of them. Not surprisingly, there is one where he says, in a tone of (albeit feigned) forlorn, “Hi, it’s 12:41. This is your husband, Mark Tracy. Just letting you know I’m still around. Bye.” April 13, 2025, marks the ninth year since my husband Mark Tracy passed away, and so it’s time for reflection once again.

One word to describe Mark Tracy, that most people don’t think about, (or maybe they do) is “unconventional”. That’s part of what made him so funny when he would “ad lib” lines into our carefully written and (ahem) “Biblically accurate” puppet shows and skits. Then there’s the story of how we decided to get Skippy, our second Sheltie.

We had been searching for the “perfect” Sheltie, (see “Pets from the Past, Part 1”) and we thought we’d found him. My previous Sheltie, Cody, had passed away at the age of 13, and we finally found Skippy at a breeder’s. We’d already named him but had come home to think it over before making the final commitment. As we sat in the living room discussing the pros and cons, my husband picked up a Louis L’Amour paperback and said, “I’m going to flip this book, and if it’s heads, we get him, and if it’s tails, we don’t.” My stepson, Kevin, sounding a bit offended on behalf of poor Skippy, said, “That’s a dog’s life you’re talking about, Dad!” We went back and got the dog.

Carlos and Skippy in 2000, and Skippy with the legendary “Robe”.

Speaking of unconventional, in “Follow the Directions” from 2021, I shared this photo of the fish sticks and meatballs dish made by “my husband, Mark Tracy”. I’ll leave his other culinary creations to your imagination.

There are other things that can be left to the imagination, as well. Here are Mark and John practicing for a skit with the Sunday school song “I’m in the Lord’s Army”. It wasn’t until later that I noticed the “resemblance” in the photos below.

We have always been told that General Anthony McAuliffe, who replied “Nuts!” to a German demand for surrender during WW2, was related to the Tracy family in some way. I haven’t been able to verify this on Ancestry.com, but I’ll let you draw your own conclusion.

“I’ve just seen something . . .”

I’ve already shared that Mark played the role of the “Centurion” for several years in our church’s Easter drama, and that I still remember a lot of his lines. He used to say he forgot his lines as soon as Easter was over, but there were lines we both remembered, and used regularly in everyday conversation. One of them was when Lucius, the centurion, has just seen Jesus healing people in the marketplace. He walks onstage looking dazed and confused, and his centurion friend Marcus asks what’s wrong. The answer was, “I don’t know, I’ve just seen something I can’t explain, something I don’t want to believe, something…” So, whenever someone would pause after saying the word “something” we’d add “something I can’t explain, something I don’t want to believe…”

In the 1960s, the “Mr. Machine robot” was a popular toy. Because the jingle on the commercials ended with “and his name is Mr. Machine”, Mark was in the habit of saying “Mr. Machine!” if you were trying to remember a name and you paused to think after saying, “His name is…”

Once an usher, always an usher.

Every year after West Coast Conference, there would be announcements about bringing back the usher badges. Look what I came across in my garage recently! Since we haven’t had West Coast Conference since the 2020 lockdown, I guess I’ll be keeping this one.

At his funeral, it was suggested that Mark would be an usher at the gates of Heaven. You’re sure to be met with a smile!

“From here to Bakersfield”

When we got our first “silver pickup”, before it was the Early Bird Pest Control truck, I sometimes drove it to work. The school I worked at was about 17 miles from our house, kind of out in the country. One day after school, I noticed that I only had about a quarter of a tank of gas left. Not being that familiar with the truck, I called Mark, and he drove out to take a look at it. After checking the gas gauge, he assured me it was fine. “You have enough to get from here to Bakersfield,” he said. Ever after that, whenever we had a quarter of a tank of gas, no matter where we were, we would say we had enough to get “from here to Bakersfield”.

Whether we were going “from here to Bakersfield”, quoting lines from “The Centurion”, or trying to decide whether or not to get a puppy, we had a wonderful 24 years together. I don’t think a day has gone by in the past nine years that I haven’t said his name to at least one person, even if it’s just, “Where’s Mark Tracy when you need him?” But we know where he is, and he probably has a “Heaven’s Usher” badge on even as we speak.