hey YouTube Alex here and this is a sad video that I didn't really expect to be doing but I thought I should respond to this anyway I just wanted to make this video sending my condolences to Mark's family
I heard that Mark actually passed away yesterday here in dagate I thought I'd give some backstory as well to my relationship with Mark but before I get into that I just want everybody to keep Jen his wife and
son Rogan and in your thoughts because I know they're going through a very difficult time with grieving and mourning the loss of Mark it's not an easy subject to cover but I thought I'd give some backstory so let
me go ahead and get into the backstory I had become familiar with Mark over the course of the pandemic and had watched his channel over part of the pandemic he had moved here to the Philippines I think in
2019 is when he moved here and a couple years later I did a video interview with him actually he interviewed me while I was living in Peru and we had a great conversation he was really easy to talk
to I was enjoying his channel a lot watching a lot of his interviews of course through his interviews I became familiar with several of my friends here in dagate who I am friends with to this day fast forward
a couple of years and I realized I'd be coming to dagate I reached out to Mark and uh initially had planned to meet up with Mark and then I got here to do meete and became familiar with some
of his ongoing legal issues I'm not here to slander Mark I'm not here to speak ill of somebody who's recently passed but I thought that I should explain that because I'm sure some of you were anticipating that I
would sit down and chat with Mark unfortunately that is no longer possible and I do regret that it's no longer possible I was hoping that that's situation would come to a resolution and that I'd be able to sit
down with him and we could have a decent conversation that's no longer possible and uh you know it is tragic Mark always came across to me in some ways as a tragic figure I know he was polarizing for
a lot of people a lot of people really had strong feelings about Mark one way or the other you know in in some ways he helped me to get my start he helped me to grow my channel on
YouTube and to become more familiar with his audience at the time of his passing I think that he didn't he wasn't thrilled toward me because of my concerns about some of the ongoing legal issues I'm pretty risk averse
but anyway I I didn't expect for things to end this way I knew that Mark had had a history of health issues of cardiovascular issues I thought that the low stress lifestyle was going to give him more time
and that you know they' resolve the issues and that uh that would be cleared up and he would continue to go on living his life here in the Philippines and it is really tragic it's a reminder I think
to all of us to let the people that you care about know that you care about them people are fragile uh life is short in many ways and especially as people get older there's no way to tell when
their time is up and do I think Mark was the perfect person no I don't think so I don't think any of us are perfect I do think that if time would have kept rolling forward his issues would
have been resolved and that we would have sorted things out and that I would have gone on his channel but like I said that's no longer possible I'm sure that there's a GoFundMe in the works to help cover
ongoing expenses related to his health care and funeral expenses when you see one that is a official and is confirmed to be official I suggest reaching out and trying to contribute if that's something that you feel comfortable with
doing if that's something that you want to do I know with this being the holiday season I'm sure a lot of people are tapped out of cash I know the economy in the US is not doing so well
but if you benefited from his content if you benefited from his channel then I'm sure the support will be greatly appreciated I know also that Jen is now in the position of being a single mom and that tends
to not be an easy line life especially here in the Philippines I imagine she probably has some level of support from some of Mark's friends in trying to sort out how to proceed and how to communicate with the
proper authorities back in the US notify the embassy that kind of thing it it's just so tragic that we've lost him days before Christmas we're less than a week away from Christmas and I knew people that had passed
away around Christmas always thought it was especially hard for people who lose somebody around Christmas time U because it's supposed to be a happy time of year it's supposed to be a break from the problems of this world
yeah I mean I think his son's less than one year old so uh it's just really tragic all around and in the interview that we did Mark asked me about my time in Peru we talked about burning man
and I figured I'd eventually sit down with him in person that time never came and it's unfortunate I always thought Mark represented kind of a tragic figure in American history in the sense that he had gone bankrupt he'
gotten divorced he had had his exwife moved back to Europe essentially lost everything and I get it I know people will talk about personal responsibility and I'm not saying there wasn't a strong element of that he was to
me representative of how things can go wrong and a person who tried to reinvent themselves in a way that many Americans are not willing to do and more so back then I think as time progresses more and more
people are willing to leave the United States but 5 years ago it seemed like a riskier bet and it seemed like it was a more Cavalier thing to do I first heard about the situation about a week ago
and I saw it start to pop up in comment sections hey Mark had a major health event Mark had a way of taking making very normal people people that you might pass on the road or the grocery store
and really bringing a lot of interesting information out of them it was really fascinating to me people that that seemed to be quite relatable had these Wildlife stories and experiences and I credit Mark a lot for having the
creativity and open-mindedness to tell these stories Mark actually took down the interview that we did I think that he didn't like that I was a bit cautious and wanted to wait out the ongoing legal issues that he was
dealing with at the time of his passing I did see him a couple of times in town but we never did end up having a conversation I did see him at Robinson's and then also in the boulevard a
few times but I just wanted to keep my distance until some kind of resolution was reached I remember that when he interviewed me when I was living in Peru that I was pretty nervous was my first time being
on a platform of that size and it is unfortunate they took that interview down I don't know if he just made it private I don't know if it's still on his channel but it's just not there or if
he just deleted it but that interview is no longer accessible on his channel it did make me happy to see him get picked up by Legion of men I know that that boost I'm sure helped him to go
out on a positive note that he got some of the notoriety or some of the recognition that he worked a long time to attain I know a lot of people think that doing YouTube is easy and I thought
so too until I started doing it more and more myself Mark had a lot of resilience to get through a lot of the hate that he got over the years I mean he really has been targeted a lot
by different kinds of trolls and I never understood why they had it out for him specifically more so than maybe any other vlogger here in dumag we did Bond over the fact that he had lived in Kentucky for
many years just as I had lived in the neighboring state of Tennessee and that was one way in which we had connected I know that for a lot of these guys having children in agap relationships they perceive of
it as a doover for them and a chance for them to have a fresh start anyway I just wanted to say rest in peace mark my condolences goes out to Mark's family I'm sure you will all be getting
more updates from other YouTubers in the coming weeks it's unfortunate that I never got to meet Mark in person but that's just the way things went
