A Remembrance Video of Mattie

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to me that you take the time to write and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful and help support me through very challenging times. I am 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 have stopped writing on September 9, 2010. However, like my journey with grief there is so much that 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 me, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.


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



April 13, 2016

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2008. Specifically around Mattie's birthday! How do I know? Because I remember this brown paper. Our neighbors gave Mattie a gift wrapped in paper. All over the paper they wrote sayings and messages to him. Mattie loved it and wanted it taped up on the wall. As you can see we had a proud birthday boy with his gift wrapping. 



Quote of the day: There is a wonderful mythical law of nature that the three things we crave most in life -- happiness, freedom, and peace of mind -- are always attained by giving them to someone else. ~  Peyton Conway March


Peter and I are headed to Rhode Island tomorrow to attend the Association of Pediatric Hematology/ Oncology Social Work conference. We have been asked to speak on Friday morning. Interestingly enough two of the social workers from Mattie's hospital will be in the audience. It is actually hard to present in my opinion when I know people in the audience. I am not sure why. 

This is one of two conferences we are attending this Spring. Another occurs the first week of May. For me the timing of this is really unfortunate because during Walk season it is hard to focus on anything other than fundraising, processing donations, and putting out fires. 

In terms of the Walk, our goal is to raise $70,000 this year and we have already met 58% of our goal, at $41,000. But we need to still keep pushing because money for us doesn't grow on trees nor do we get government grants to fund our work. We are able to continue providing psychosocial miracles to children with cancer because of the trust our supporters and corporate sponsors have in us and their incredible generosity!

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