Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution… & Mark

Angel: “I’m sure I must have seen this photo before but I don’t remember it. My phone just died. Aunt Donna, let me take a picture of it with your phone. Then you can send it to my phone.” She does. I open the 4th spiral bound book and flip it to the right section.

Aunt Donna: “I have all 4 sets of parents grouped together with their families. Your dad was the youngest. So you and your brother and sister are at the end of the fourth book.”

Angel (I look at the fronts of each of the four, inch-thick spiral bound books. I see she has our family history traced back to the 1600’s.) I think to myself, “Where’s a pen? I need to write Aunt Donna’s name on the back of each of the four family histories. That way when they get mixed in with Mom’s work, several big files worth, we’ll be able to tell these are Aunt Donna’s work.” I find a pen and turn each of the books over to write “Donna” unobtrusively on the back of each.

Dad: “Aren’t those MY books?” He’s alarmed.

Angel: “I’m writing Aunt Donna’s name on the back so we can tell them apart from Mom’s files. Yes, these are yours. I don’t recognize the photo she used of Laileigh. I’m taking a picture of it.”

Dad: “Oh. Ok. Then put them on my bed.”

Angel: (I find the photo of Lai and take a picture of it with Aunt Donna’s phone. I see it is actually from a Facebook post I made when Lai was a toddler.) “Oh. It’s Mark. Nut-nut.” That was the day my friend, Mark DeAlessandro, Sylvester Stallone’s stunt double for 25 years, 30 Stallone films, hundreds of other major blockbusters, came to Austin. The picture is of Mark holding baby Laileigh. I read what I wrote. He looks so happy and proud. “Did we take this one when Mark came to your house?” I ask Aunt Donna. She looks confused. I think. “Oh, we only CALLED him from your house.” Later, I realize the background is an Austin restaurant. I still can’t remember which one. But I remember that day. Mark had come to my apartment in Austin where I lived with my grown daughter, Skye, and my toddler granddaughter, Laileigh. He had come in and we had all laughed and had fun seeing him again. Then his phone had rung. He’d gone outside to the apartment hallway to talk. When he took a long time I picked up Laileigh and took her with me outside. Mark wasn’t there. Lai and I walked to the bottom of the stairs and saw him. He was way across the parking lot, on his phone, walking, and pacing all over the lot. We sat down and just watched him for a very long time. “What’s he doing?” I said to baby Lai, in my lap, as we watched him. “Mark’s a nut-nut,” I said in baby talk. Lai laughed. We kept sitting there watching him for a very long time, pacing all around the apartment parking lot, talking on his phone, ignoring us. Finally, he came back. We went to eat. That picture of Mark holding toddler Laileigh was at the restaurant we three ate at that day. I remember he said, “You and Lai can come watch me film. I’ll be at Lakeline mall. They’re filming me falling down the elevator shaft. I’ll be dressed as a Zombie. It’s for a scene in “The Walking Dead.” You and Lai can come and watch.” We didn’t. But we had a new pet phrase for our beloved famous friend that we still use to this day, Lai is now 7. We just say, “Mark’s a nut-nut.” He is. But we love him. Here’s that pic which now permanently resides in our family genealogy book that my Aunt Donna (who faithfully maintains our records in the “Sons & Daughters of the American Revolution” annuals) took the day I posted on my Facebook page that our friend Mark came to visit us.

Copyright 2025 Angel Isaacs All Rights Reserved

Written March 23, 2025 at 1:39 pm