my hands wet with my expensive 100 euro high tech gore-tex gloves. rob stafford: in this clip, mark and monica have found an unoccupied shelter on the mountain. it s not as posh as that chicago townhouse he once owned, but after months of living alone in a tent, this shelter seems to suit him. if i owned this place, i would live here. i would live here. monica: why not? for sure. rob stafford: these were the happy times, the moments when past burdens seemed to melt away like spring snow. but monica says there were also days when her lover seemed to be cracking under the weight of something unseen, and yet undeniable. monica: november, 2009, he was a little depressed, because it was cold, and the tent was alone. and so it was difficult, really difficult. one day, he began to cry.
mark weinberger, 11 years older, was already a very successful ear nose and throat doctor. we were bonding about medicine because i had just gotten through doing a stint in neuroscience at the university of chicago. we were just making jokes about the medical milieu. he was very funny. so you hit it off right off the bat? we went out to dinner. it was thursday. i spent all weekend with him and by monday i was enamored and smitten. within months michelle had moved out of her parents home and into mark s townhouse in chicago. the whirlwind was on, athens, miami, caribbean sunsets and french champagne. michelle, you look beautiful. for a southwest chicago girl whose father was a pipe fitter, this was head-turning stuff. just want to say this is the best vacation ever. i love you, baby. her new love was a philosophy quoting poetry writing renaissance man. he professed his love in a
was dying of cancer, to walk her down the aisle. next, there was a lavish blessing ceremony in a 12th century villa on italy s coast. mark flew in a dozen gifts from the states. then mark topped it all off by renting chicago s field museum and inviting 110 guests for another formal reception there. those were the memories that kept running through michelle s mind as she and her mother waited for mark to return. but when the sun set that night and mark had not returned, as the captain had promised, michelle knew something was horribly wrong. but what? there were no reports of an accident involving mark, no signs of foul play, no ransom notes. only questions. was there a note of any kind? nothing. no message, nothing.
hadn t they had it all? money, youth, happiness. what on earth caused him to chuck it all without as much as a note of explanation. november 1st was our three-year anniversary and a bit of a turning point for me. but prior to that i still believed wholeheartedly that he was going to send for me. and if he sent for me, i would have went with him. really? i would have, yes. and that day came and went with no phone call, no letter, nothing. and that made me realize that i needed to take care of myself and try to get back on my own two feet. mark was still alive. she knew that because, even though she hadn t heard from him since that brief phone call in greece, credit card statements were still coming in to their home in chicago.
allowing michelle s father, who was dying of cancer, to walk her down the aisle. next, there was a lavish blessing ceremony in a 12th century villa on italy s coast. mark flew in a dozen gifts from the states. then mark topped it all off by renting chicago s field museum and inviting 110 guests for another formal reception there. those were the memories that kept running through michelle s mind as she and her mother waited for mark to return. but when the sun set that night and mark had not returned, as the captain had promised, michelle knew something was horribly wrong. but what? there were no reports of an accident involving mark, no signs of foul play, no ransom notes. only questions. was there a note of any kind? nothing. no message, nothing. i went through the boat like a crazy person just tearing everything up looking for something. and the only two things i found was 1,000 euros and my passport