Meet Werner and Mark from Lake Ontario

They have been together for 38 years! They met in New York City, in 1987, when Werner immigrated to the United States from Germany. The two met at a local pub by accident. Mark thought Werner was flirting with him from across the room. The story goes, Werner had just gotten new contact lenses and just had put them in before entering the pub. The lenses were bothering him. He kept winking one eye in an attempt to make the lens fall into place. Mark took this as Werner winking at him from across the room. When mark approached him and introduced himself Werner quickly mentioned the new contacts. From there, the two struck up a conversation and laughed the night away. They went their separate ways but continued to run into each other at other local establishments and a friendship began. Mark noticed that Werner had a car. He said, “When you live in New York City and have a car, that means you’re probably doing well. I was like, this is a green flag! Little did I know that the car was a company car.” Werner said, “Mark had an apartment in the West Village. I thought, this is a green flag! Little did I know that he had obtained that apartment because the building manager had just lost the contract to continue further services. He gave Mark an amazing rental rate before he left because he supported the humanitarian work Mark was doing.” The global AIDS epidemic began in the 1980’s. The height of the epidemic hit in 1990’s. Mark devoted 20 years of his life bringing education and resources to his community. For the past ten years, he has worked to support the LBGTQ community in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Werner spent his life selling high-end kitchens in the United States and in Germany. Today the couple is retired. Their favorite thing about their relationship is that they are best friends. Mark is the planner and Werner is the, “go-with-the-flow guy.” The one thing they want to tell the world is, “Pay attention to what is happening in the world.” Mark and Werner gifted us a beautiful stone from Lake Ontario which will always remind us of the light and darkness of life. Thank you for visiting, sharing your story, and for your humanitarian work.

“Life isn’t just about darkness or light, rather it’s about finding light within the darkness.” (Landon Parham)