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

March 1, 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016 -- Mattie died 337 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2007. We were in Key West, FL for spring break and along our journey we stopped for lunch. Outside the restaurant was this station wagon with the license plate, "shrimpy." Naturally since it had a large shrimp attached to its roof. Peter's parents snapped this photo of us, and check out Mattie with a paper towel tube on top of his head. The car had a shrimp, and Mattie had a tube!



Quote of the day: Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts – it’s what you do with what you have left. ~ Hubert Humphrey


This morning I was out doing chores and landed up in the Hallmark store. Which is one of my favorite places to go. In any case, my perpetual complaint about Hallmark was that they never had cards to address the loss of a child. 

We can all identify with some sort of occasion covered at Hallmark. Such as birthdays, anniversaries, marriages, birth of a baby, graduation, and sympathy. However, this is the first time that I saw cards about the loss of a daughter or son. I was so stunned that I actually photographed what I saw. 

I have to say that this is a very needed and welcomed product line because it gives people in our lives the opportunity to acknowledge such a loss. Hallmark has made child loss in a way okay to talk about, rather than not address it at all. Which of course only compounds the isolation and frustration bereaved parents feel. 

I went for my follow up appointment with my neurologist today. I have been working with this doctor since Mattie died. In any case, I was telling him about my experience undergoing the EMG/Nerve Conduction Test in his office. I told him it was manageable because of the people administering the test. Both the technician and other neurologist were very person centered. They really connected with you, relieved any sort of stress you had about the test and prepared you along the way. I was telling my neurologist that I enjoyed talking to his colleague and getting to know him. I mentioned that his colleague and I have similar concerns about our health. With that my neurologist stated that his colleague should not talk about his personal concerns in an appointment. Mind you what the doctor talked to me about was actually very beneficial for me to hear and helped to normalize my fears and anxiety. So in essence not only did I appreciate connecting with him, but I felt that the interaction was therapeutic. 

But my doctor doesn't share this notion of connecting on a human level. Which is interesting and sad at the same time. After all, if you don't connect with the person in front of you, how likely are they to give you the FULL picture of what is bothering them?! I did not get into my perspective with my neurologist because I did not want to compare him with his colleague nor reveal anymore than I had (which were generalities) about his colleague. Nonetheless I find it ironic, odd, and hysterical that here are two doctors working in the same office with each other and the two of them know nothing about each other. I think that speaks volumes! 

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