Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Nurse Mark Coyne remembered; died doing what he loved, sister says
Nurse Mark Coyne, 53, was remembered Monday evening at a spirited and poignant memorial service at the Crossroads Church in Madison attended by more than 600 people, including more than 150 Med Flight, EMS, fire department and other emergency medical personnel from southern Wisconsin.
Coyne, along with Dr. Darren Bean and Med Flight pilot Steve Lipperer, died in a medical helicopter crash outside of La Crosse on May 10. A commemorative service for Bean and Lipperer was held last week.
Damien Mikkelson, Coyne's nephew and former student at Madison Area Technical College, remembered the joking side of his uncle, who once offered him $400 in tuition money to dance in a hula skirt and coconut bra in front of their family — an offer Mikkelson took. Mikkelson said he had come to look on the event not as a dare, but as a test that helped him gain self-confidence.
"It saddens me to think that I won't be able to get back at him," he said. "Or to thank him for pushing me."
Laughs punctuated the tears of those gathered, who were treated to several such lighthearted remembrances from Coyne's friends and relatives.
The speakers remembered Coyne the boater, the joker, the drinking buddy, the fisherman, the teacher, the life of the party, the one who always played devil's advocate and the one who was a father figure to his five siblings after their father's death.
"He pushed us all to be our best, and then not to be satisfied, but to push on," his sister Megan Coyne Cuccia remembered.
After regaling the audience with a few stories of her own, Michelle Coyne Schmaling, Mark Coyne's eldest sister, said several people have asked how she and her siblings could be doing so well. She responded by remembering how her brother had always said that death was simply a part of life.
"We do what we do because of who we are," she said. "And Mark would expect no less."
Youngest sister Mignon Coyne said her brother died doing what he loved and there was no other way he would have wanted to go. She implored people to share stories about him to keep his memory alive.
She also extended her sympathies to Mark's widow, Ann Coyne, who she said "(is) and will always be our sister and our friend."
At the conclusion of the ceremony, a Madison Fire Department honor guard rang a bell nine times to announce the conclusion of their colleague's service.
The gathering was then moved outside, where UW's remaining Med Flight helicopter took off from the church's front lawn to join two others from La Crosse's Gundersen Lutheran Hospital and Milwaukee's Flight for Life, flying over the gathering.
As the three helicopters disappeared in the distance, one onlooker observed: "Look, they're taking him home."
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