Mark Zimkin is found
When Warren and I first connected, neither of us had done a recent Internet search for new information on Mark but Warren now ran a new search and uncovered a Las Vegas real estate transaction in December 2010 in which a Mark Zimkin was listed as a partner in the firm that bought the property. Not necessarily our Mark Zimkin but definitely worth checking out.
Warren did so by sending a Rosh Hashanah greeting to Mark at that address. Here is part the followup email I received from Warren on September 25: "I believe I had informed you that I sent a Rosh Hashana card to the address I had found for Mark Zimkin in Las Vegas. Well, this evening I received a call from Mark!!! We had a very nice and extensive conversation filling each other in regarding our respective lives."
He went on to share Mark's phone number and suggest that I give Mark a call. He also wrote that he and his cousins were making plans to visit Mark in Las Vegas. Again I managed to overlook Warren's email but he sent me a reminder a week later that reached me while on a trip to Pittsburgh to cheer on my team in the first round of the National League playoffs. The thrill of learning of Warren's success in locating Mark added to the excitement of the Pirates' first home playoff victory in 20 years.
I waited a couple of more days until I was back home before placing my own call to Mark. I got his voicemail the first time but the next day he answered immediately and knew all about me and the reason for my call. He explained that he was not much of a computer or Internet user and therefore had not actually read my postings about him, but Warren had filled him in on what I had written and learned from Rebe.
He wanted to correct a few details in my account and was especially interested in hearing more from me about his Zimkin family members, Elliot, Rebe and Isolde. I had to give him the bad news that Elliot had died less than two years earlier, but didn't have details about the circumstances. Mark and I had never met and he had never even heard of me until two weeks before, but we were soon sharing details of our lives like close family members.
