and consulted with us on this story, mark weinberger was a nerdy kid from a wealthy new york suburb who was driven by sibling rivalry to outshine his brothers. mark figured, the way to be the apple of my parents eye is to do well in school. he went to the university of pennsylvania, then went to ucla medical school where he thrived. he could have established his ear nose and throat medical practice anywhere, but in 1996 he chose merrillville, indiana. it was close enough to chicago that he could live there and have chauffeurs drive him to his office every day. but most important, he could count on the air pollution in northwest indiana to provide a steady stream of patients with sinus problems. in northwest indiana where you re breathing in the pollution, you ve got high pollen and extreme changes in temperature, it s not unusual to see a high degree of patients who suffer from sinus problems. suzette dennington, weinberger s top medical assistant worked closely with
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. he s going to the biggest fashion houses across france and buying clothing and he s at casinos.
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 poem. he just swept me off my feet. you had an unbelievable life. it really was, yeah. like it was just so romantic when i first met him, it was awesome. and then things just got, like, exponentially more outrageous as time went on. outrageously good. yeah. for instance, instead of simply popping the question to michelle, mark flew her to rome. he had a driver bring her to meet him. mark dropped to one knee and presented her with an enormous ring while a group of minstrels he hadired senaded them. i was crying and erybody the piazza was clapping. it was a beautiful moment. their wedding in 2001 was actually a three-act extravaganza. first a small wedding in chicago s botanic garden held solely for the purpose of
value of improvisation. these are $8 gardening gloves, and i got sick of getting my hands wet with my expensive 100 euro high-tech gore-tex gloves. 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. why not? for sure. 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. november 2009, he was a little depressed because was cold and at the time he was alone.