The End of Fick Explained

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Mark Fickert: 2.2.1956 to 9.30.2026

by Amy Martin
About 45 years of friendship, so many phases of friendship, friends to the end. My heart is broken to pieces.
I’m working on a tribute, but it’s taking some time to process all this. I’m getting questions, so here are just the facts. If you want a full recap of Mark’s cancer saga, contact me.
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After a year of bad gastric distress and many doctor visits, last fall Mark was hospitalized with jaundice. That’s when the pancreatic cancer was discovered. Outside of his family, he let just a few know and we were all sworn to secrecy. He was sure he could kick cancer’s ass and have stories to tell. As an actor and comedian, he’d tell them well.

Surgery was not possible since the tumor was up against a major artery. Months of chemo did not shrink it. Stronger chemo devastated him, even at a muscular 6’4”. He could not consume enough calories to keep ahead of the cancer. Eventually he collapsed in his apartment, and last Sunday he was ambulanced to Big Baylor near downtown.

An MRI showed the cancer had spread throughout his abdomen. His kidneys were impaired and unable to keep his blood mineral balance. His heartbeat was shooting dangerously high, sometimes in Afib, and throwing off clots that lodged in the brain, causing mini strokes, but blood thinners would cause internal bleeding. His bone marrow was shot and unable to make the right blood cells. There was no way out of this.

Word spread like wildfire. On Tuesday, his hospital room filled with a reunion of old friends. Jokes made, routines reprised, comedy songs sung, most of them Mark’s. When spoken to, his respiratory line on the monitor would shoot up. That day, it was dancing. Late that night, his beloved stepdaughter was found and they reunited. Hers was just about the last voice he heard.
He passed at 4:16 am on Wednesday morning, his best friend at his bedside, the light of a waning Moon hovering outside his window. His body was donated to UTSWMC for pancreatic cancer studies. News of a celebration of life to follow, but could take some weeks.
Enjoy the photos. Mark had one helluva career: comedy, theater, film, voice talent. If you’ve got some Mark pics, send ’em on. See photos at https://www.facebook.com/LoneFunman or https://www.facebook.com/AmyLifeIsGoodMartin/
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Even if you’re not sick, PLEASE leave your house keys, and laptop and phone passwords, with someone you trust. Arrange both a power of attorney and a medical power of attorney. Let someone know what you want for a memorial service and body disposal. Here’s a good checklist: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/advance-care-planning/getting-your-affairs-order-checklist-documents-prepare-future/

Amy Martin is the author of Wild Dallas-Fort Worth: Explore the Amazing Nature of North Texas (https://wild-dfw.com/), released by Timber Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, in 2022. She is the senior reporter at Green Source Texas (https://www.greensourcetexas.org/) and author of Itchy Business: Itchy Business: How to Treat the Poison Ivy and Poison Oak Rash, Prevent Exposure and Eradicate the Plant (http://itchy.biz/). ~ . A journalist for over 40 years, Amy covered comedy, music, and eclectic entertainment, as well as news features, for Dallas Observer, Dallas Times Herald, Dallas Morning News, and D magazine, plus a variety of tabloids and monthlies. Her final entertainment foray was as senior comedy, cirque, and magic critic for the online TheaterJones. ~ . As an environmental reporter (her "day job"), Amy was contributing editor and columnist for the Garbage, a national environmental magazine. She had a recycling column and features page called Taking Trash at The Dallas Morning News. ~ . She was The Aging Hippie columnist for Senior Voice, and the Taoist panel member of the Texas Faith blog of The Dallas Morning News. ~ . Amy was known by many in North Texas as the Moonlady for her alternative newservice of 15 years, Moonlady News, and served as creator/producer/promoter of the acclaimed Winter and Summer SolstiCelebrations for 20 years.

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