Saturday, April 28, 2012

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. We took Mattie for a walk in the Hospital rose garden and we stopped to take a picture by this beautiful red azalea. A color Mattie and I both appreciated. Mattie preferred being in pajamas during the day time. Rarely was he in clothes while in-patient. This was his choice, which I certainly could appreciate, since the hospital was cold inside and typically Mattie was feeling ill from treatment. Therefore, being in something comfortable and cozy made sense to me. I never fought him on that, and frankly while living in such chaos and with such a crisis, I learned to pick my battles and worried about only the things that mattered.


Quote of the day: My view is that if your philosophy is not unsettled daily then you are blind to all the universe has to offer. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson


I spent a great deal of the day working on Walk plans, issues, and other Foundation items. I most likely would never have left our home or the computer today, if my friend Tina did not invite Peter and I to her daughter's school play this evening. Tina's daughter, Leslie, and her fifth grade class, performed a play I never heard of before. It was Twindererella. Twinderella is a children’s comedy by playwright Charlie Lovett. The play is a modern twist on the old story of Cinderella. Twinderella follows not only Cinderella’s story, but also that of her twin brother, Bob. Basically two orphaned children, living with mean guardians, whose lives are running in parallel. However, as most fairy tales do, this play had a happy ending.

I recognized many of the girls in the play tonight, since I met several of them during Leslie's birthday party in February. Some of my faithful readers may recall that I was invited to Leslie's party which entailed a journey to all the great cupcake bakeries in town. So in a way I have seen several of these girls in multiple contexts. The play was lively, the kids were humorous and witty, and the story line moved along very well. It is wonderful to see children being taught about the arts, to see them appreciate live theatre, and to also see them acknowledge the adults in their lives who made this production possible. One of them being my friend Tina, who was the play's coordinator, which I imagine was no easy task given the number of children in this production.

Naturally visiting a school and seeing children doing "normal" things is very bittersweet for us. On one hand we are happy to be included in the lives of our friends, and yet on the other hand it is hard to know we will never see Mattie doing any of this. I do think Mattie would have liked a school play, and I think he would have had fun being a part of a team production like this. Once the play was over, Peter and I stayed behind to chat with Tina and her family and to also help Tina clean up in some way. In the midst of Tina's busy night, she handed me a beautiful artistic pink butterfly she brought back for me from her most recent trip. She did not have to say anything, I knew exactly what the butterfly meant, symbolized, and represented. In a way, Mattie was there with us tonight.