Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2005. Seeing this photo ALWAYS makes me laugh. Mattie and Peter were playing with plastic or pretend foods. They were holding up toy french fries and potato chips. Of course what they were doing with them was key! They were both imitating BIG BUGS and trying to intimidate me!
Quote of the day: The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
The highlight of my day today was I got to spend it with my good friend Mary Ann. We had lunch together, chatted, and had an opportunity to catch up. Mary Ann and I went to graduate school together and we have been through many of life's ups and downs together. We understand grief and also appreciate the fact that there are no timelines for it nor do we have expectations or pressures about how we want the other to act or feel about our losses. In other words all feelings are fine, valued, and what makes us unique. Over lunch, I shared with Mary Ann the story below..................................
In June of 2013, I was introduced to a family who lost their only child
to cancer. Chris was 12 years old and died of Leukemia. When he died, his mom,
Ilona asked to be connected to another mom who also lost an only child. There
aren't a ton of us out there, or at least who have been treated at Georgetown
Hospital. In any case, one of Mattie's doctors contacted me and asked me if I
would be willing to talk with Ilona. That one request led to a friendship.
Ilona and I have been connected since that very first encounter in 2013, and we
text message each other every day. How a loss connected two people who did not
know each other..... that could be a story in and of itself.
Recently Ilona shared with me the fact that she placed an order for
four iPads through Amazon. Ilona orders iPads as part of her Foundation work.
The Foundation grants iPads to children who have cancer. Ilona does this in
memory of her son, Chris. Chris turned to his iPad when he was undergoing
treatment. It helped him stay connected to friends and family and it also
helped with distraction, which is necessary when contending with scans and
other challenging procedures.
However Ilona's most recent iPad order that she was expecting to be
delivered to her house on February 19, NEVER showed up. When she contacted
FedEx, they claimed that she did receive the iPads and FedEx showed her the
electronic signature that was obtained by the driver at the address. The
signature did not belong to Ilona nor her husband. So the question became.....
who did the iPads actually get delivered to and to what address did Fedex use?
For the past week and a half Ilona has tried to work this issue out with Fedex and with Amazon. However because FedEx had a signed delivered receipt, the seller was not willing to take Ilona's word for what had transpired. Last night Ilona sent out a message on Facebook to all her supporters for help. It was at that point it dawned on me that she needed the help of the media. So I sent an email to Beth Parker at Fox 5 news. Beth has covered several Mattie Miracle stories and I really enjoy working with her. I particularly like that when I send Beth an email she always responds back and takes my requests seriously. That to me makes such a difference and after you see Beth's coverage of Ilona's story I think you will see why I call Beth "a childhood cancer champion."
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In one day, Beth contacted FedEx and Amazon and got this debacle resolved. As for tonight the iPads are now in Ilona's possession. But I am quite sure if Beth hadn't intervened, hadn't investigated the issue, and put pressure on these companies, Ilona would still be without the iPads she ordered and most likely would have had to take this financial loss of repurchasing four more iPads. 
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