Obituary
Mark Edward Defrates of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, passed away Friday, June 10, 2016. Mark was born May 24, 1950 in Mumbai (Bombay) India. Formerly of New Orleans, Louisiana and Key West, Florida, he had resided in New Smyrna Beach since 2001. Mark spent his childhood in India, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom, among other places, as his mother Mohana Cabral was a film star from Goa, India, and his stepfather, John Defrates, served as a United Nations official, including with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). While on leave in Beirut from attending Oxford University, Mark met his first wife, Sandra. In 1969, they married and moved to the United States, travelling the country before settling in Key West, Florida, where Mark started his career as a jeweler, first doing simple designs and repairing pieces of jewelry, and then moving on with ever greater skill to creating gorgeously intricate and beautiful pieces of his own. At the end of his life, he was a master craftsman at the height of his powers. His partner in his jewelry business was his second wife, Pamela, who he married in 1986, and who shared his life in Key West, New Orleans, and New Smyrna Beach. Mark loved the good things of the earth, loved meeting new people, loved caring for animals, he loved his family; he loved living. His loss is deeply felt by all who knew him. Mark is survived by his devoted wife of 30 years, Pamela Daley, his sister Clare Defrates-Penelon of La Coucourde, France, his children, Christopher Carmona, Kier Purdy, Ananda Lavan, and Matthew Defrates, and his grandchildren Gabrielle, Kay/eigh, Ijah, Jade, and Avalon. Services will be private. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Southeast Volusia Humane Society.
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