Newspaper clipping about Neil's flight

I had been traveling though India for about three weeks now and I was in Goa and enjoying the beautiful beaches. I wished I could have stayed longer but my schedule did not permit it. From there I went to Madras and got a bargain hotel. I was tired of trains and had to wait three days for a flight back to Calcutta. I went back to the hotel to have breakfast. A man in a nice business suit was having breakfast and since he was the only person in the large dining room I said good morning.

He said, “Are you having breakfast?” I said, “Yes.” “Why don't you join me,” he said. We had a nice talk and every morning we had our breakfast together. He was very kind and gentle. His name was Mark Buntain. He was attending a meeting of Church ministers in Madras and he was having very bad back pain. As a physical therapist I explained Pain Eraser to him. It is a technique I learned from Bonnie Prutint, a famous physical therapist. He was able to do the pressure points in his room and received much relief. We had breakfast every morning. Mark asked me when I would arrive in Calcutta. I told him and he said that he would send a car and book a hotel for me if I would like. The plane was three hours late but the driver was still waiting for me.

He took me to a hotel on Park Street. It was real nice and at a good price. The next day the driver picked me up and I met Mark Buntain at his church and school. He showed me his Mission of Mercy Hospital, the nursing school, and a school for children which he and his wife had started in a tent in 1954. The last thing Mark said to me was “Read your Bible. We never know when our time will come.”

Map courtesy of http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=64546&rendTypeId=4

In March 1978, I visited Kathmandu, Nepal. My plane made an emergency landing in Calcutta. I went to visit Mark and found out he had passed away. One of the ministers came to the reception and took me to see Mrs. Huldah Buntain, Mark’s wife. As I paid my condolences, they asked me if I would like to see Mark’s grave. Another minster took me to Park Street Cemetery. A soldier was marching around Mark’s grave 24 hours a day. The minister said, “There was a major traffic jam the day of Mark’s funeral in Calcutta.” They called him Saint Mark of Calcutta. Mrs. Huldah Buntain has been traveling extensively and speaking on behalf the Calcutta Mission and 800 churches which have projects in eleven Indian states. I cannot begin to tell you all of the wonderful things this man and his wife, Huldah, have done for India but the computer can. I will give you their website at http://www.buntain.org.