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 6, 2014

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2007. Mattie went on a trip to Key West with us and Peter's parents. Mattie had a great time exploring the Keys and as you can see here Mattie paused by this dinosaur comprised of found pieces of metal. Mattie got a kick out of this creation and was trying to do his impression of a dinosaur! A cute moment captured in time, but a moment I remember so well. 


Quote of the day: True friendship is seen through the heart, not through the eyes. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche


Peter is back in Washington, DC tonight. But after hearing about his flight, all I can say is I am so happy I wasn't on it, as I am sure Peter was too. Peter had two hours of severe turbulence. In which the plane did free falls of several hundred feet throughout the flight. Peter tells me the woman next to him was sighing and moaning and popped two Xanex, for anxiety. I feel for this woman totally and while Peter was telling me the story tonight, I could feel my level of discomfort. Thank goodness I did not know he was dealing with this, because I would have been very worried. Peter loves motion and roller coasters, but he said even this flight bothered him. So I deemed that as ONE BAD FLIGHT!!!

I started my day with a conference call. Mattie Miracle has been asked to submit an abstract to present at a conference in Toronto, Canada in October. The conference itself is international and draws doctors, nurses, and parent advocates from around the globe. One of the conference organizers has learned about our National standard of care that we are developing and feels this is something the international community would be interested in hearing about and potentially adopting. All music to our ears. So I find in addition to my other roles and duties for Mattie Miracle, I now need to add conference presentations and abstract writing to my list. This is a great problem to have, but slowly I am seeing there aren't enough hours in the day. 

When I wonder why I have such intense headaches now, all I have to do is pause and assess what I need to do in a given day or week. I have to admit it is overwhelming, but I deem this as the stresses that any small business owner faces. Though I run a non-profit, at the end of the day, it is just like running a business and has some of the same complexities, demands, and challenges. 

Later today, I had the opportunity to visit with my 85 year old friend Mary. Nietzsche's quote intrigues me because with Mary, our friendship is not only felt through the heart, but it is also felt through our eyes. In some ways, caring for Mary reminds me of caring for Mattie. In the sense that both tracked me with their eyes and really words did not need to be said. So much is said through one's eyes and despite my friend's failing health, there is some sort of comfort knowing that even without words, we can still connect. 


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