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 2, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008, during Mattie's first week of chemotherapy at the Hospital. That was the week from hell. Trying to adjust to living in the Hospital, with a room the size of a closet, sharing bathrooms with other families, and the constant noise associated with an intensive care unit were all overwhelming. Pictured with Mattie is Linda, Mattie's buddy and child life specialist. Linda became a very crucial part of both of our lives. Linda seemed to understand Mattie right away and that week she helped to set up a painting area right in the hallway of the PICU. This got Mattie out of his room and actually when his good friend, Charlotte, came to visit him, they had a normal activity to do together. I will never forget Mattie and Charlotte painting in the hallway together. Things that you didn't think could happen in a Hospital, Linda found a way for Mattie to do them!

Fun Facts of the day: (1) Julius Caesar founded Florence in 59 BC as the
retirement location for his veteran soldiers. (2) The City of Florence is considered the "birthplace of the Italian Renaissance" and the "Athens of the Middle Ages." (3) In 1339, Florence became the first city in Europe to have paved streets. (4) Florence Nightingale was born in and named after the city of Florence.


I ended my tour in Nice yesterday with motion sickness. If you have never had motion sickness, consider yourself very lucky. The ironic part is it was the bus trip back from Nice to Monte Carlo that did me in. Fortunately the beauty of Dramamine is that it really works, it makes you groggy, but it is much better than the alternative.

The ship docked in Livorno today. This is the port town of Florence. Peter captured a beautiful sunrise over the harbor! We got up at 6am this morning for an early tour of Lucca, a town in Tuscany, just 30 miles from Livorno and 46 miles west of Florence. We decided against a tour of Florence today. Around 15 years ago, we all took a ten hour tour of Florence together. Tours that are ten or more hours long are aggressive and since we have an 11 hour tour of Rome tomorrow, two marathon tours back to back would have been impossible. So we selected a half day tour today of Lucca instead.







As we drove by bus from Livorno (which isn’t very pretty at all, it is a true industrial port!) to Lucca we passed glorious fields filled with sunflowers. I have never seen sunflowers planted like this in the wild, for miles and miles! It was an absolutely spectacular and truly Tuscan sight!



The vegetation of Tuscany is memorable! For as far as the eye can see there are fields of greenery which include olive trees, grape vines, mountains, and flowers!








Lucca is a very small town. There is the “interior” Lucca and the “exterior” or outside Lucca. What delineates inside from outside?! The answer is Roman walls. The original city is surrounded by Roman walls which were built in 56AD. These walls still exist today and those who live inside the walls deem themselves the TRUE Luccans! Those outside the walls are just that, outsiders. Lucca is known for its banking, which is why you can see many bank buildings around the small town. But what puts Lucca on the map is its manufacturing of amazing olive oil and household paper products (like napkins, paper towels, etc.).

The streets of Lucca are charming! There are NO sidewalks, the streets are cobblestoned, and there is no trash on the streets. The main way people get around in this ancient city is by bicycle. Honestly the bicycles own the streets and as a pedestrian it is survival of the fittest. If you see a bicycle coming at you, you better watch out. If you don’t move aside they will certainly hit you!











The town is charming. Houses are colorful and most of the architecture is a blend of medieval, renaissance, and also art nouveau. The architecture reflects the great history of the town. Needless to say this was a very walkable city filled with churches, stores, shops, and restaurants.  













Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Puccini has been called the greatest composer of Italian opera after Verdi. Puccini was born in Lucca in 1858, and was one of seven children. His family was considered a musical dynasty, since seven generations of Puccini men directed the choir and musical programs at the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Lucca. This statue commemorates Lucca’s famous composer who was born at this very location!







This is a photo of the house where Puccini was born and lived for many years. Now the house has been converted into a Puccini museum.
















Lucca, though small, is filled with churches! One of the churches we visited was San Michele in Foro (in foro means in forum – literally this church was built over a roman forum). San Michele or St. Michael’s is a Roman Catholic basilica. It was built over the ancient Roman forum (a forum is not unlike the Roman Coliseum in which gladiator fighting took place). The church is dedicated to the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Lucca. You can see the HUGE angel sitting at the top of this church. This angel can even move its wings and it used to do so on special occasions! This church dates from the 12th century and is considered a beautiful Romanesque church with one of the most interesting facades in Italy. It has four colonnaded levels of gleaming white marble inlaid with a menagerie of real and mythical animals.

Cathedral of St. Martin, also known as the Lucca Duomo was constructed between the 11th and 15th centuries. Within the church is a shrine that contains the most precious relic in Lucca, the Volto Santo di Lucca, or Sacred Countenance. This cedar-wood crucifix and image of Christ, according to the legend was carved by Nicodemus (who according to the Gospel of John took the nails out of Jesus’ feet after he died on the cross and prepared Jesus’ body for burial).

Our tour guide educated us regarding the exterior of St. Martin. St. Martin was created from all local Tuscan materials, which included white, green, and pink marble! She said that each color represented a virtue such as faith, hope, and charity. Colors and carvings on the outside of the church told a story to its church goers. Why? Because when the church was originally created parishioners could not read. So instead of reading words, they identified with the colorful virtues and stories which were told through pictorial carvings.

In the top left carving or relief, you can see St. Martin giving a sermon. Notice a flame above St. Martin’s head. This flame signifies him being embodied with the teachings and passion of Christ. As for the carving or relief on the top right, this depicts a woman who while being blessed by St. Martin had a mythical spirit flying out of her head. Throughout the entire exterior of the church there are countless moral and spiritual messages!

The Guinigi Tower is the most important tower of Lucca, Tuscany. Its distinguishing characteristic is the hanging garden on the roof of the tower. The live oaks on top of this structure symbolize rebirth and also an emblem of prestige.















No town tour would be complete without a cat sighting from my perspective. Lucca did not disappoint. Here is the “Lucca Puss” we saw today. There were aspects of her coloring that reminded us of our dear Patches.





This wall is deceptive. It looks like any brick and stone wall of a building. However, it is far from that! During the Roman period this was the exterior wall of Lucca’s Roman Amphitheatre. This Amphitheatre was just like the Coliseum that existed in Rome in which gladiators would fight animals until their death. At one time the exterior of this wall was lined with marble columns and boulders. However, with the dismantling of the Roman Empire the marble materials were removed from these exterior walls and were used to construct churches. So what we see today are the bare remaining walls (brick and stone), without their marble adornments.




This is what the interior of the amphitheater space looks like today. Of course back when it was used as an actual amphitheater it did not look anything like this. There would have been no complete buildings, but instead seating in the round to see the gladiator games. Yet Lucca has preserved the shape of the space and instead of tearing down history, they restored it in a way. The amphitheater has been converted into condos, shops, and restaurants, to form a lively Piazza!

Lucca is filled with stores that sell handmade leather products from Florence, handmade Italian leather shoes, olive oil and vinegar, gelato stores everywhere, cafes, and of course pastry and deli shops. I couldn’t resist taking this photo. It is hard to walk passed such a store selling wonderful baked products and not buy them, so instead, I snapped a photo!


The days have been beautifully hot, sometimes in the 90s. Only sun, not a drop of rain, not even a cloud in the sky. However, what is most noteworthy is the sun doesn’t set until 10pm! I happen to love this! I am not a morning person at all, but I do love the evening hours. This is usually when I am most productive and have more energy. If I lived in the Mediterranean there would be no telling what I could accomplish. As you walk the streets of Lucca, or most likely any Mediterranean small town, you get the feeling that outdoor living is important, people enjoy talking and connecting with each other, and meeting and gathering in cafes is a tradition and daily occurrence. 

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