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

August 24, 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday, August 24, 2012


Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2007 in Boston. Mattie was visiting Peter's parent's home and fell in love with a chipmunk in their backyard. Mattie never saw a chipmunk before, so seeing one in his grandparent's garden was very special. Mattie named this chipmunk, "Chippy." In fact, when Mattie entered kindergarten his teacher required the children to develop their writing skills. In order to inspire the children to write, Mattie's teacher asked that each child bring in a couple of photos, photos that could trigger a story. One day Mattie and I sat down looking at pictures, and he immediately selected a picture of Chippy to bring to school. In fact, Mattie wrote some wonderful Chippy stories which we still have in his writer's workshop booklet.


Fact about Le Havre, France: While under German occupation, the city was devastated in 1944 during the Battle of Normandy in World War II; 5,000 people were killed and 12,000 homes destroyed, mainly by Allied air attacks. After the war, the centre was rebuilt in the modernist style by Auguste Perret. Le Havre was honoured with the Legion of Honor award on July 18, 1949. Le Havre was once synonymous with urban gloom and greyness. The city's inhabitants have done much to change this; as a result of substantial improvements, Le Havre is now spoken of as the Brasilia of France.

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Below is an account of our day! I will post pictures of Monet's home and garden when I return home this weekend. We toured from 7:45am to 7pm today, so I am exhausted. Now we are scrambling to pack so we can fly home tomorrow. The weather continues to be awful, and we are meeting quite a wind storm right now as we are sailing back to Southampton. The Captain is recommending Dramamine to passengers.... not a good sign! To top it off we just learned this morning that our flight tomorrow was cancelled, so we are trying to figure out how United plans on getting us home. Quite a last day to say the least!!!
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Perhaps no other place in France holds more associations for English-speaking visitors than Normandy. The historic Allied landings on D-Day - 6 June, 1944 - live on in the memories of British and Americans alike. Nor has Le Havre forgotten the dark days of the war. The port was nearly completely destroyed during the Normandy campaign. Today, Le Havre is France's second largest port and the gateway to Paris, "City of Light," the Norman countryside, and the historic landing beaches. Le Havre was designated as a World Heritage Site in 2005, with The Musee des Beaux Arts Andre Malraux which boasts one of the finest collections of Impressionist paintings in the world.

We took a scenic drive through the Normandy countryside on the motorway to Monet's home at Giverny on the Seine (a two hour bus drive from the port of Le Havre). Claude Monet spent the last four decades of his life creating a magnificent garden at his home, and memorializing it in oil on canvas. We embarked on a guided walking tour through a flower garden called Clos Normand. The Clos Normand is ablaze with color in summer, with tulips, roses, dahlias, sunflowers and nasturtiums. Monet created his garden with an eye for how it would appear on canvas. We approached the pink crushed-brick house adorned with green shutters through the garden entrance. Inside, we visited the salon, Monet's bedroom, his Nympheas Studio, the yellow dining room and the tiled kitchen, noticing Japanese prints and the work of his artists friends which lined the walls throughout. One marvels at the Japanese-inspired water garden and the Japanese bridge surrounded by wisteria and azaleas over the lily pond. The pond and bridge were the subjects of one of Monet's late masterworks. We had lunch in Fourges, at a picturesque restaurant housed in a restored barn on the banks of the Seine. We dined on salmon terrine with creamy sauce, an emince of chicken with cream, apple tart with calvados, and wine. Next was Rouen. Rouen boasts over 700 ancient timbered houses. Bustling Rue Saint Romain and the Rue du Gros Horloge, passing Rouen's old fortified clock tower and law courts, housed in a Renaissance building. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen, is a superb example of French Gothic architecture that took 300 years to complete. The cast iron spire is the largest in France and the central portal features an elaborately painted "Tree of Jesus." The interior, features a Lady Chapel, the tombs of Rouen's archbishops, secured behind wrought iron gates, and impressive 15th-century stained glass windows. The Place du Vieux Marché, the Old Marketplace, which is the site where the English burned Joan of Arc at the stake. Today, the square boasts the Great Cross of Rehabilitation erected in tribute to the Maid of Orleans, a daring modern church is dedicated to her memory.

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