Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009, on Valentine's Day. It was our last Valentine's Day with Mattie. Of course I did not know that at the time, and fortunately ignorance is bliss. Nonetheless despite my lack of knowledge about when he was going to die, I was bright enough to know that every minute with Mattie should be appreciated. I shared that philosophy even before Mattie developed cancer! I did have professional interests and obligations, but Mattie always came first and thankfully he did because we only got seven years together. On Valentine's Day, Mattie worked very hard with the help of his art therapists to surprise me with all sorts of hand made gifts. I still have all of these gifts and will remember this day as if it were yesterday. Mattie and I always made hand crafted Valentine's for his friends and teachers and I wanted to post a photo of that tonight on the blog but I can't seem to find any of these photos! Which of course is very upsetting to me. I know we did all these crafts, I just can't find the visuals to illustrate my memories. What triggers Valentine's day? The email from my friend in cancer today!
Quote of the day: I remembered every moment between us, and every moment felt more precious as time passed. ~ Shannon A. Thompson
This Childhood Cancer Awareness rally will be held at NIH on February 14, 2015. I was told that a Valentine's theme will include a
red rose display and 50 red roses handed out to people. There will be an
opportunity to honor Mattie on a custom made festive hang tag
attached to the 50 roses to be handed out. The design will include 4 panels
(two folded hearts). On the front cover side will be a photo of Mattie and
the text "Forever in our hearts." Inside will be some childhood
cancer facts. The back panel will include a word cloud design with 15-25 words
describing Mattie, as well as his first and last name, age, home state and diagnosis.
When I went on line today to fill out the application for the hang tag, I did not think it would be too difficult. But trying to list 25 adjectives to describe Mattie on the spot wasn't as easy as it sounds. Mainly because in my mind it is hard to describe Mattie with one word or 25 words for that matter in a list. I started my list and then what I quickly did is I went to the internet and looked up "adjectives to describe someone." Hundreds of lists came up. This helped me tremendously because I wanted to find the right words to capture Mattie's spirit.
I then came up with a list and submitted it, but then realized I hadn't waited for Peter's list. Later in the morning Peter text messaged me his list. Though our lists had a lot of overlaps Peter had several words that described Mattie to a T and HAD TO BE added to the application. So I emailed my friend and I asked her...... "how do I edit my application once it has been submitted?" Fortunately she is technologically savvy and she fixed it for me!
So here is our list of 25 words to describe Mattie (some of the words may describe things Mattie actually liked -- such as nature and building with Legos):
brave
son
curious
precocious
builder
persevering
gentle
helpful
spirited
creative
thoughtful
nature
loyal
lovable
playful
humorous
logical
energetic
mature
musical
friend
charming
passionate
resourceful
adorable
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