On Friday, Mark Pilgrim's life was honoured in a private memorial service in Johannesburg.
Friends, industry colleagues and family attended the service, during which his lifelong friends Kevin Cook and Julian, managing director of HOT 102.7FM Lloyd Madurai, radio presenter Simon Parkinson and Pilgrim's fiancée Adrienne Watkins spoke fondly of the beloved media personality.
The service started with two songs, Why Do You Go by Peter Crosby and Far Away Places by Joshua Nichols. It was then shared that these were part of Pilgrim's top 5 favourites, which Watkins had played to Pilgrim on Sunday morning before his death.
Proceedings then commenced at 09:41 – later explained by Watkins to have been in tribute to Pilgrim's love of technology.
"This is the universal time setting on all Apple devices. As you know, Mark was a tech nerd and an Apple nut … and so in celebration of our whizkid, we felt this was quite apt," she said.
Sharing a recent memory, Parkinson spoke of the deal he and Pilgrim made when he was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in February last year.
They both knew Pilgrim would be undergoing chemotherapy and that a common side effect was nausea. While Parkinson could handle Pilgrim eating boiled eggs in studio, he joked that he could not take Pilgrim vomiting.
"I said, 'I'll make a bet with you. I'll buy you anything you like.' He said, 'Okay, I'll have a bottle of red wine every time I don't vomit in the studio.'"
Parkinson continues to explain that he bought and gifted Pilgrim nine bottles of wine, "and then, unfortunately, the sickness started to take hold, and he couldn't make it to air".
"I brought bottles 10 and 11," Parkinson said, adding that bottles 10 and 11 are for Pilgrim's ex-wife, Nicole, and his fiancée Watkins to "open and toast to a fantastic man" when they felt they were ready.
Watkins then took to the podium to pay tribute.
Click 'read more' to watch Mark's memorial service.
