Tonight's picture was taken in June of 2006. Mattie was at a Day Out with Thomas event and as you can see, Mattie was all business when it came to riding on a train. Peter captured Mattie in motion and working hard to get around the track using the hand crank on this ride-on car.
Quote of the day: They that love beyond the world cannot be separated by it. Death cannot kill what never dies. ~ William Penn
It was a strange weather day today, with dark ominous clouds and rain. Not the best weather for a logistical team walk through of our Foundation event site. However, I will take all the rain now, as long as May 22, turns out to be a sunny day. Last year's Walk experienced the worst weather possible, and it is my hope that we get a better weather day this year. As I was driving to Mattie's school campus, I realized that we needed an indoor meeting plan for today's group, since an outdoor meeting wasn't going to happen. Larry, one of Mattie's former teachers now works on the upper school campus, and I contacted him for help. Literally in the subject line of my email, I wrote, HELP! Within minutes Larry got back to me, and he also found us a conference room to meet in. There are several amazing Mattie supporters on the upper school campus, and I am not sure where I would be without them! Mattie's technology teacher, Mary, works on campus too, and I went to visit her after the meeting. Mary was and continues to be very devoted to Mattie. She faithfully came every Wednesday to the hospital to work with Mattie on computer skills, and I can assure you, Mattie did not always greet Mary in a very nice manner. But Mary understood and always helped Mattie work through that. I will never forget her kindness. As we spoke about Mattie today, she had tears in her eyes, and typically when I am with Mary, we can both land up in tears because we are just comfortable with each other and our feelings as we relate to Mattie. So needless to say, though Mattie never made it to the upper school campus, I feel a deep connection to the amazing faculty members working there.
I appreciated all 6 women who showed up today and gave several hours of their time to brainstorm the walk. Despite all our best efforts, Peter and I can not do the Walk alone, and it is thanks to several consistent and loyal supporters that we are able to successfully run this event. As I listened to the dialogues today about how things should be set up and what the flow should be like at the walk, I later came home and started drawing out all sorts of flow plans.
I was scheduled to go out to dinner with Jerry and Nancy tonight. The dynamic musical duo from the hospital. But I just wasn't feeling good and wasn't up to it. I spent most of the day at home, working on Walk items. Later tonight I heard from Lauren's mom, Carey. Lauren is one of our Faces of Hope this year. Carey wanted me to know that last night another child (Sara, age 13) with Osteosarcoma, who was an electronic friend of Lauren's died. Our hearts goes out to Sara's family, and we know the devastation that they feel all too well. As I sit back and reflect on this, I told Carey that I imagine this is very hard for Lauren to accept. After all, Sara was her age and had the same disease as Lauren. Though Lauren is a teen with a beautiful smile and a passion to help other children with cancer, I have to pause and wonder should a 13 year old know so much about the harsh realities of life? Should she have friends die from cancer, the same cancer she battled with? From my perspective it would be impossible for Lauren to have the typical teenager experience. She knows, has seen, and has survived a horrific disease. A disease that will always be a part of her life.
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