Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. That evening we took Mattie to Peter's office holiday party. Mattie had his reindeer headband and sweater on and truly managed to get around the room that night. The office played a secret Santa gift game, and leave it to Mattie, because he came home with the exact item he targeted.... a plastic gingerbread house that lit up!!! At the party was Stephen (the husband of Peter's colleague). As you can see Stephen looked just like Santa, so Mattie posed for a photo! This is still one of my favorite holiday photos of Mattie.
Quote of the day: There is no such thing in anyone’s life as an unimportant day. ~ Alexander Woollcott
The highlight of my day today was I received an email from my friend in cancer in California, Lee. Lee's daughter (Melinda) was diagnosed in 2007 with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had the opportunity to meet Lee and Melinda in March of this year, when Melinda spoke at the Institute of Medicine's workshop. I was beyond impressed with Melinda, not only for how she reflected on her own cancer battle, but the way she was able to do this. She was candid and yet inspiring and upbeat at the same time, which is a hard balance to strike. Melinda was able to allow all of us in the audience a glimpse at what it is like from a psychological perspective to be a childhood cancer survivor. Sometimes when you hear survivors speak, they only focus on the positive and negate to really show us the long term impact of such a diagnosis on one's mind, body, and spirit.
Melinda wrote a book called, Grace, a child's intimate journey through cancer and recovery, and it was published by Happy Quail, a company that she and Lee started. Lee is now working on publishing another book, but this time it will give voice to several moms and grandparents touched by childhood cancer. An opportunity for us to tell our story, the impact childhood cancer has on us, and what it has inspired us to do with our experiences. This is Lee's brainchild and the book is called The Momcologist.
In any case, Lee asked for chapters to be submitted to her in the Fall for the book. To make a long story short, I have had the unexpected Fall of not feeling well and needing surgery. That really set me back, in addition to the 7,500 pounds of candy that needed to be distributed. The beauty of Lee is she knew exactly what I was dealing with as she text messaged me when I wasn't feeling well and during my ordeal of testing and then surgery. But today's message is what caught my attention.... Lee basically doesn't want to put pressure on me and knows I will get to the chapter and feels that my contributions are needed and important. It was the way she said and how we interact that makes me feel the special connection that we share across the Country. The power of words is important, because they can cheer up an entire day.
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