Mattie Miracle Walk 2023 was a $131,249 success!

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

March 7, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2002. Mattie was six months old and graduated to a high chair. By that point he no longer fit in his car seat (which was his desired place to eat)! In this photo, Mattie was featured with yams all over his face! His favorite things to eat back then were yams, butternut squash, peas, and baby oatmeal! In fact, Mattie loved oatmeal SO much that everyday of his healthy life he ate a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. This was what he wanted and requested and whenever we travelled with us always came packets of instant oatmeal!


Quote of the day: Hope has two beautiful daughters - their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are. ~ St. Augustine

I love St. Augustine's quote and I relate to it very much, because since Mattie's death I would say that I do carry two "beautiful daughters" around with me wherever I go. Some days anger is more prevalent and other days courage supersedes. Lately however, as I try to figure out my own health circumstances, anger, fear, and sadness can take over.

I worked rather intensely for hours this morning, barely moving from the computer. As some of my faithful readers may remember, I was connected last week with Dr. Jimmie Holland. Jimmie is a psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and is considered the mother of psycho-oncology. I reached back out to Jimmie and not only is she attending our Symposium, but will now be speaking at it as well. It is a wonderful honor to have such a pioneer in the field coming to our event.

The of rest the afternoon I spent visiting with Celina. Celina is my hairstylist, and her husband and her sister also work in her salon. Over the years, I have gotten to know Celina's family. I met Celina before Mattie was born! Celina and her husband not only run a successful salon in DC, but they are very generous and charitable individuals. On March 31, they are holding a reception at their salon to raise money for the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation. I will be sending out details soon, but if my readers want to attend, the event will run from 7-10pm. Celina's husband, Eugenio, told me today that his intention is to host this fundraiser every year for us. It is hard to know what to say to this incredible gesture, but this is a couple that deeply wants to help people and give back to their community. Needless to say, when I visit the salon, it is a very positive experience for me because in a way it is like having a complete change of venue for two hours. In fact when Celina cuts my hair, I literally close my eyes and try to tune everything out around me. Something that I really need to do.

Tomorrow is another full day. In the morning, I see yet another doctor to consult with him about the possibility of a biopsy and then in the afternoon, I will be back at Georgetown University Hospital for a follow up MRI. As always I appreciate all your good thoughts!

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