Remembering Mark And Jacob Thousand Oaks Acorn
Remembering Mark And Jacob – Thousand Oaks Acorn https://dentoncountynewsonline.com/remembering-mark-and-jacob-thousand-oaks-acorn/
EMOTIONAL EMBRACE—Nancy Iskander hugs paramedic John Denton of the Los Angeles County Fire Department after a prayer vigil Sept. 29 in honor of Mark and Jacob Iskander at Three Springs Park in Westlake Village. Denton performed first aid on her sons the night they were killed. The vigil was held on the second anniversary of the brothers’ deaths. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
Nancy Iskander’s eyes lit up when she recounted her 11-year-old son Mark’s favorite joke:
Visiting a new town overrun with ducks, two women are told that stepping on one will lead to dire consequences. One woman disregards the warning and is forced to spend an eternity with an ugly old man.
The other treads lightly and is ultimately rewarded with a handsome suitor.
“I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” she says, eyes cast to the heavens.
“I don’t know either,” the man replies. “But I stepped on a duck.”
The joke was told by a classmate of Mark’s during a 90-minute vigil held Sept. 29—two years to the day after Mark and his brother Jacob, 8, were struck and killed in a Westlake Village crosswalk. The classmate, a student at Ascension Lutheran School in Thousand Oaks, told the joke to a crowd of 250 or so gathered last Thursday at Three Springs Park.
“I’ve heard all of (Mark’s) jokes many, many times,” Nancy Iskander said in an interview after the vigil. “He loved telling jokes. He told jokes every day on our way to school, in the car. And whenever I took him to a work function, everybody would be around Mark telling jokes, and nobody would be talking to me.”
CHOKED UP—Classmates and friends of Mark and Jacob cover their faces while recalling stories about the Iskander brothers during the prayer vigil at Three Springs Park. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
She said the one about the ducks is her favorite.
“I’m so glad it was told today. It’s a really funny one,” she said.
Levity wasn’t hard to find amid the sorrow, as friends, relatives and officials from the city and the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and fire departments gathered to remember the boys and show support for their parents, Nancy and Karim.
The event included guests writing messages on wooden hearts and hanging them, like leaves blowing in the wind, on remembrance trees.
Several people spoke about Mark’s humor and Jacob’s inquisitiveness.
Mariam Girgis, the boys’ Sunday School teacher, said it was Mark who opened her eyes to why being a teacher was right for her.
REMEMBRANCE—Attendees, including Karim and Nancy Iskander, listen to stories about the Iskander brothers during a prayer vigil Sept. 29. Friends and teachers of Mark and Jacob spoke during the vigil, which was held two years after the boys were killed by a hit-and-run driver. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
He was in her very first class, when she had been asked to fill in for someone else. Full of doubt, Girgis took on the task.
By the end of the class, which included a lesson on King David, Girgis put any doubt behind her and finally was able to relax—because she had “survived” the day.
“Then, a small hand shot up from a few pews back,” she said. It was a tiny boy in the second grade who, until that moment, was sort of hiding behind the other kids.
“Mark had not just heard the lesson. He had heard it and he had pondered it, and he was now ready to unleash a series of incredibly thoughtful questions that were very challenging to answer,” Girgis said, fighting back tears.
“The lesson’s core sentiment was about loving everyone we meet, and Mark wanted to make absolutely certain that he was clear on how he could apply this to his personal life,” she said.
The class didn’t end until Mark had achieved total clarity along with everybody else, including Girgis.
STILL IN THEIR HEARTS—Luke Hughes, 10, tells stories of his friendship with Mark and Jacob Iskander during a prayer vigil for the boys. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
“I left that day a completely different person,” she said. “I rushed home and I told my mom all about Mark. I told her about this precious boy who challenged me and opened my eyes and made me very aware of the blessing we received when we agreed to serve Christ. . . . I didn’t understand the magnitude of the blessing until I met Mark.”
Some of the people who showed up for last week’s vigil wanted to support the family as the criminal case against the hitand run driver, Rebecca Grossman, continues two years later.
“We don’t know the (Iskander) family, we just know the circumstances,” said Rich deAnda, a retired LAPD detective who came to the park with his wife, Deborah.
Julie Cohen, who organized the vigil, didn’t know the Iskanders before the crash. Ever since, she’s been a front-and-center supporter, showing up for every court hearing in Van Nuys.
She’s also a mother of two and said it’s the “bond of brothers” that inspired her to want to help.
FIGHTING TEARS—Friends of the brothers offer one another comfort during the Sept. 29 event in Three Springs Park in Westlake Village. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
“Although my boys are grown, when I look at Mark and Jacob I see my boys,” Cohen said.
Addressing the crowd, the Rev. Cyril Gorgy, the boys’ priest at Archangel Michael Coptic Orthodox Church in Simi Valley, said that despite their short time on Earth, their impact locally and abroad will live on through the Mark and Jacob Iskander Foundation.
“A person can live to 90-plus years old and may have only an impact on their immediate family,” he said. “But here we have two beautiful angels that, by their lives, are impacting many generations to come here and across the globe.
“By the legacy of Mark and Jacob, many orphans in Egypt will have a better future, and by the legacy of Mark and Jacob, many children will have access to fresh clothing and nutritional meals and necessities of life.”
Gorgy urged the crowd to hold Mark and Jacob in their prayers and to do the same “for the people who caused the tragedy and their families.”
The vigil ended with Nancy Iskander joining brothers Joseph and John Wisa—best friends of and, respectively, the same ages as Mark and Jacob—in a release of white doves.
“In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen,” said Iskander before the trio, with her husband at her side, sent the birds flying.
Afterward Iskander, who had opened the vigil with a prayer, said she wants Mark and Jacob to be remembered as loving life and loving God.
Her final message was one that could bring comfort to anyone experiencing trying times.
“I want everyone who sees me on my feet to know whatever they’re struggling with in life, they’ll be OK,” she said. “They’ll be on their feet as well.”