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you can’t mess with griffin. taken by kristin k. 10/07/07

Mark Griffin, 35 years old of West Hartford CT, died Monday June 2 surrounded by family and friends. He grew up in Sayreville, NJ.

He attended Sayreville HS (1991) and the Joe Kubert School (1997). Working as an illustrator, he also created his own comics: “The Kersaders” about kid superheroes, and his unfinished personal work, “Karma Shmarma”, documenting his battle with cancer. Mark played bass in several rock bands and enjoyed traveling and cooking with his wife.

Survived by his devoted wife of 8 years, Jennifer, and his mother, Susan, and predeceased by his step-father William Dorman. Also an extended family of relatives and friends. Mark had a generous soul and touched the lives of all who knew him.

Memorial services will be at Rezem Funeral Home, 457 Cranbury Road, East Brunswick, Thursday June 5 from 5 PM - 8 PM. Funeral on Friday June 6 at 10 AM. If you would prefer to make a donation in Mark’s name in lieu of sending flowers, Jen Griffin suggests The Marrow Foundation at www.marrow.org or The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society at www.leukemia-lymphoma.org.

i don’t think it’s fully sunk in that you’re gone and i don’t know if i ever want it to. there are so many things i’ll miss about you, from breakfasts at your house to driving aimlessly in search of apple fritters to sharing new comics to that absurd near all-night session of adventures of lolo 2. remember that night you, me & aaron were on the way home from st. mark’s after helping phil move? i was enthusiastically telling you guys about a scene in JLA when we pulled up next to that silver SUV - “professor stephen hawking!”, aaron points to the car and our mouths dropped - i don’t think anyone but us believes that actually happened.

sometimes i feel like i don’t deserve to hurt as much as our other friends that have known you since childhood and high school but over the past six years you and jen have shown me new measures of strength, love and courage that had a profound effect on me. every time you were diagnosed you never succumbed to bitterness, cynicism or self-pity. you let all of us in instead of shutting us out. that’s the type of person you are and it made your inevitable recoveries that much more joyous and inspirational. the running joke was “who gets cancer four times?”"someone who can BEAT cancer four times”.

one of my favorite all-time memories, months after mark had beaten cancer for the second time:

sleep well, my friend, i’ll miss you every day of my life.