Mattie Miracle Walk 2023 was a $131,249 success!

Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation Promotional Video

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to us that you take the time to write to us and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful to us and help support us through very challenging times. To you we are forever grateful. As my readers know, I promised to write the blog for a year after Mattie's death, which would mean that I could technically stop writing on September 9, 2010. However, at the moment, I feel like our journey with grief still needs to be processed and fortunately I have a willing support network still committed to reading. Therefore, the blog continues on. If I should find the need to stop writing, I assure you I will give you advanced notice. In the mean time, thank you for reading, thank you for having the courage to share this journey with us, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki and Peter



The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation celebrates its 7th anniversary!

The Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation was created in the honor of Mattie.

We are a 501(c)(3) Public Charity. We are dedicated to increasing childhood cancer awareness, education, advocacy, research and psychosocial support services to children, their families and medical personnel. Children and their families will be supported throughout the cancer treatment journey, to ensure access to quality psychosocial and mental health care, and to enable children to cope with cancer so they can lead happy and productive lives. Please visit the website at: www.mattiemiracle.com and take some time to explore the site.

We have only gotten this far because of people like yourself, who have supported us through thick and thin. So thank you for your continued support and caring, and remember:

.... Let's Make the Miracle Happen and Stomp Out Childhood Cancer!

A Remembrance Video of Mattie

January 9, 2016

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Saturday, January 9, 2016


Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. Mattie and Peter were in the woods behind Peter's parents house. Peter spent many hours in these woods as a child and he wanted to share this with Mattie. Mattie of course already loved nature, being outside, checking out streams and bodies of water, and of course his favorite past time.... collecting sticks and branches of all kinds. Many of which usually came home with us and were added to Mattie's stick collection in our commons area. 






Quote of the day: Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man. ~ Benjamin Franklin



After traveling 3,432 miles in the past 10 days, we arrived back in Port Everglades, Florida around 6am. This was a photo we took from our cabin! In a way these first three photos remind me of Monet's work. He was famous for capturing the same image but at different times of the day. With a change in sunlight, the image takes on a whole different flavor. 


An hour later, at 7am, you can see the drawbridge opening up. But it is in essence the same image as above, just taken an hour later. Yet you really feel a difference for the landscape with the sun rising. 




The drawbridge at 8am, right before we left our room to head for breakfast. 











In addition to our cruise ship, there were three other cruise ships in port. So four in total in Fort Lauderdale, and we were told that another three were in Miami's port. If you factor in all of these ships, that means 20,000 people were coming off and on these ships in Florida today. It is absolutely a logistical feat!!!








This is a photo of the Concerto dining room on the ship. It is where we had breakfast today. The wait staff on the ship was primarily from the Philippians, and they were all fantastic. Very customer focused, friendly, accommodating, and eager to assist. 

While at breakfast this morning, we sat next to a couple from Seattle. They started chatting with us and told us about their adult children, one of whom lives in DC. After she finished telling me about her children, she then NATURALLY asked me about mine. Given how I feel and who I interact with, my answer to this question is different. But this morning I was blunt. I said, "my child died." From my experience, the type of response I gave her, usually elicits one of two reactions : 1) the person finds a way to stop the conversation with me and leaves, or 2) the person says she is sorry and then asks whether I have other children. As if that would solve my grief and loss. The woman this morning provided neither responses. She actually surprised me. She first asked me to repeat what I said, because she probably thought she did not hear me correctly when I said my child died. When I repeated it, she looked visibly overwhelmed and saddened by this news. She asked what type of cancer and when Mattie died. She then told me that she volunteers at Seattle Children's Hospital and when she left she thanked me for sharing about Mattie and told me she would remember me and what I told her. I never expected that response today, much less from a complete stranger. 



Peter snapped this beautiful photo from the airplane.... the coastline of Fort Lauderdale in its glory.
















When we left DC in December it was raining and grey! Guess what? It hasn't changed much in almost two weeks! This was the photo Peter snapped upon our landing. It literally felt like we were landing through pea soup. It was that thick and cloudy! 



No comments: