Sunday, October 25, 2015

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken on October 20, 2007. That day Mattie's school had a fall festival that was followed by a homecoming football game. Mattie was very interested in attending the fall festival that day and he had a ball. He met up with all his kindergarten buddies and they ran around on the field, jumped on the moon bounces, got their faces painted, and simply enjoyed being with one another. Keep in mind that Mattie had just entered that school in September of 2007, and yet a month later he had a pack of friends. Friends who really enjoyed their time together, playing with each other, without the need for outside distractions like electronics or any other media. 


Quote of the day: To die is poignantly bitter, but the idea of having to die without having lived is unbearable. ~ Erich Fromm

My long time friend, Mary Ann, posted this beautiful photo that she took of acorns on her Facebook page today. When I saw it, I immediately thought of Mattie. Mattie loved to collect acorns at this time of year. He had a bunch for himself, but the cute thing about Mattie was he liked to give special people in his life... an acorn! He loved collecting the acorns that had their caps on top, and he was selective about which ones he would pick up and take home with us. Pre-cancer Mattie used to see an occupational therapist weekly. Each week that he would visit with Kathie, he literally brought her an acorn. I can assure you she had quite a collection! But if you stop to think about it... how many children, out of their own desire, stop to think about bringing an item/gift to their therapist each week?

Mattie loved oak trees so much that in May of 2010, when I found out that the Class of 2020 (Mattie's high school graduating class) wanted to donate a memorial tree to the school in honor of Mattie, I selected an oak tree. It was a no brainer. The school asked me what kind of tree I felt would symbolize Mattie, and that he would like! Naturally it was an oak! Oak leaves turn a vibrant color in the Fall and also drop their acorns. Two things that reminded me of Mattie... the vibrancy and collecting acorns!

However, that Oak tree wasn't meant to be. It caught a blight, which apparently is a disease that many oaks in Alexandria contract. Therefore the school's arborist encouraged us to select a different type of tree for the replacement tree. This was a very hard decision and some of my faithful blog readers might remember that I had you voting on which tree you thought we should replace the oak with. 

We selected a Yellowwood Tree. Which is not a common tree for our area, but because it produces beautiful flowers in April/May (in honor of Mattie's birthday), and in the Fall its leaves turn a golden yellow (in honor of childhood cancer awareness) we felt it would be the perfect tree. Those of you following the tree saga know, that the first Yellowwood Tree that was planted also died. So now we are onto tree #3 (pictured here), which is also a Yellowwood Tree, but planted in a different location, near the playground. It seems to be thriving, and we hope this is a trend, since it is very devastating for us to find a struggling and dead tree. We visit Mattie's tree often and it gives us an outlet.... not unlike a grave marker to remember him in our physical world.