Tonight's picture was taken in November of 2008. Mattie was with the "dynamic duo" here, or in other words Whitney and Lesley. They were both child life specialists at the Hospital, who Mattie related to very well. Despite Mattie's first limb salvaging surgery, he was up and about and playing with his remote control car. In fact he was giving his stuffed animal a ride. You may notice that Mattie's feet were wrapped up in bandages! Nothing were technically wrong with his feet, but nonetheless Mattie felt that his feet were bothering him. He kept telling us they were burning and he had all sorts of sensations in them. We concluded that this was a reaction from his chemotherapy and because we wanted to make sure Mattie knew we heard him and took him seriously we would wrap up his feet. Once his feet were wrapped up he tended to feel better.
Quote of the day: That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day. ~ Charles Dicken
Tonight's beautiful quote comes from Dicken's book, Great Expectations. Today was a memorable day for me. I met with my friend, Mary Ann. I drove out to Reston, VA to have lunch with her and to walk around the Lake near her home. A lake she has told me so much about and has shared photos with me. Mary Ann and I have known each other for many years, since we met in graduate school. In fact, we were counseling ethics buddies and when we took our ethics class at the University we were the most active students during the semester! It was a memorable moment for me back then when I met Mary Ann, because I found it mentally stimulating to find someone to dialogue ethical issues and scenarios with and from that class our friendship developed and only grew throughout time. That ethics class was our "first link" to today's "one memorable day."
The one thing that I have noticed in life is that having experienced a hardship, a loss, or a trauma does not mean that this will equate to human growth and development. Or that this will make a person more introspective, deeply reflective on life, or have more meaningful priorities. In fact, I have met people who seem completely unaltered, unfazed, and simply have not learned or gained any insight from what lesson life has set before them. I of course find this disappointing and troubling because I can't see how this is possible but maybe under other circumstances I would process Mattie's loss differently. I do not know, and I am not here to judge. But I do know when I sit with someone who is also deeply reflective, introspective, and knows how to emote, it is in essence a memorable day for me. Such as today.
I want to thank Beth Parker at Fox 5 News for reaching out to Mattie Miracle and for always promoting the work that we do. She alerted her colleagues at Fox 5 about our drive, as you can see in the attached link that went out today!!! Beth and her neighbors are also donating to our drive. As always we are grateful to Beth for her fine work with us and for her outstanding coverage of human interest stories in the DC area!!!
Donate your candy to a good cause:
http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/27258306/donate-halloween-candy-to-a-good-cause
No comments:
Post a Comment