Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2008. Next to Mattie was his tinker toy haunted house. Mattie was into making haunted houses that year. He made an elaborate one in clinic from a cardboard box and then he made this one at home. Mattie included paper pumpkins and ghosts on the structure and he even strung the whole thing up with lights. At night would we turn on his orange lights and see the house aglow. But what I also see subtly in this photo was the chaos that was beginning to pile up all around us. I tried to keep it organized but by the time Mattie died, I would say the periphery of our living room and dining room were filled or stacked with hospital items, toys, and other Mattie things that came into our lives while he was battling cancer. The cancer within also in essence became a visible cancer that took over our home.


Quote of the day: Funny enough, I sit on my porch all day, wave and smile at everyone. Some of them aren't sure, some smile right back, some come back later and say; "This morning you made my day, had the best day all week, thank you for that!" Smile and wave, that's all it takes.  ~ Martin R. Lemieux

I can safely say that the Mattie Miracle Candy Drive is transforming several of our friends' homes. I received two photos today. This is the candy at my friend Ilona's home. Ilona and I recently became friends in June. Unfortunately we became friends because we both have lost our only child to cancer. Ilona and her friends are helping our candy drive and as  you can see they are doing a great job!!! This collection alone is at over 100 pounds.

My friend Leslie has collected candy for us now two years in a row. Each year Leslie and her daughter sort the candy for us. Which is a HUGE help! As you can see Leslie clearly has an over 100 pound collection as well! If Mattie could only see this, I think he would have found this totally fascinating! Mattie LOVED to sort candy. He did it with his own Halloween candy and he loved to count it as well. The irony was Mattie did not eat whatever he collected, unless he received lollipops or pretzels. Those items he never traded or gave away!

Peter and I have worked the entire day. For us weekends are just as labor intensive at the weekdays! Maybe even more so. Today while Peter was doing an IKEA run, I sat down and folded and labeled all the clothing items of Mattie's that I would like transformed into a memory quilt. On Tuesday, I am shipping this box to my friend Terri who is a master quilter. Terri has a child who was treated at Georgetown for cancer, and the irony is when Mattie was battling cancer he received one of Terri's quilts. We did not know who Terri was at the time but Mattie loved his puppy dog quilt! I am honored that Terri will be working with us to create such a special Mattie memory. Given that her son battled cancer, I feel she understands the important nature of this creation.

Our Mattie room transformation is well underway. We are using part of the room now as an office. In essence this is where Mattie Miracle paperwork and work will be happening in our home. I am so thrilled to be away from the kitchen table now and to have an official space! Mattie's room is aglow and the color just brightens everything up. We are also thrilled to be able to display Mattie's art canvases, Mattie's special toys, and his creations. It is a work in progress, but progress is being made. I have always wanted a corner desk overlooking our deck and garden space and that is what Peter assembled for me today. Though this is all looks positive, the act of removing Mattie's things from his room and transforming the room are incredibly hard. Needless to say, after a full day of this we are both wiped out, we really can't speak with each other now because of exhaustion, and we just need time now for all of this to sink in.