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Pharmacist, Mark Anthony Christie, dead at 82

FeaturesPharmacist, Mark Anthony Christie, dead at 82

BELIZE CITY, Sat. Aug. 5, 2017–A memorial service will be held on Saturday, August 12, at St John’s Cathedral, for well-known Belizean pharmacist, Mark Anthony Christie, 82, who passed away on Friday, July 28. Christie, whose last place of employment was the James Brodie and Company Pharmacy, suffered a serious stroke in April 2015, and never recovered. After the memorial service in his honor, Christie’s remains, which his son Patrick Christie told Amandala will be cremated per his request, will be interred at the Lord Ridge Cemetery, in his mother’s grave.

Christie served Belize in various capacities. He worked as a pharmacist at the old Belize City Hospital, before he moved to the hospital in Corozal Town, where he worked for a number of years. During the 1970’s he was an active member of the Belize Volunteer Guard. He was also a Commissioner of the Supreme Court, and a member of the Belize Choral Society, a singing group which performed on many occasions at the old Bliss Institute.

“My dad was an all-a-rounder, who used to go to many different churches to sing at funerals,” Patrick told us. “I used to go to see him perform at the Bliss. But most of the people who used to sing with him have passed away now. I met a young lady and told her to tell her mother my father passed away. She told me her mother passed away like 15 years now,” said Patrick.

“Ms. Muriel Laing told me that the last time he sang was on the 20 April, 2015. They have that performance on video, she said to me,” Patrick commented.

Patrick said that after his father retired he went to live in the United States for some years, where he taught at a university in Miami. When he returned to Belize he began working at James Brodie and Company Ltd.

Patrick, who is 50 years old, said he has an older brother and sister, Mark and Monica, with whom he shares the same father. “They live in New York, and they’re older than me,” he said.

Patrick said some of his fondest memories of his father involved cars. “He used to drive from the States several times, bringing cars from places like New York that I have never been to. He bought a Ford Cortina from Gordon Roe that was 1970 something. We went to Belmopan, because he had to get to some PAHO meeting or something, and so we drove there and got there in 32 minutes. That was before the road had all these bumps and all this traffic like now. I told him afterwards when we were going to Corozal, “you always drive, slow.” My mom used to tease him and tell him that we were going to take two days to reach Corozal. He brought a Hillman car and just parked it in the yard. That car ended up in the movie Dogs of War. When the people came, they just bought it from us. But he brought the car just to have the car,” recalled Patrick.

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