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

May 4, 2016

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken on May 21, 2008. This was classic Mattie! Every spring Mattie would bring home tent moth caterpillars from his school's playground. The first time Mattie did this, he was in preschool. But the tradition continued for years. SO much so that I had the jars to keep them in, and we had a whole strategy on how to feed and clean their jars. You wouldn't think that caterpillars could be messy, but they are. They eat and eat, but also have output!!! When Mattie first brought these loves home, I honestly did not know what they ate. I suppose I could have googled it, but we did trial and error. We tried all the leaves around our home. They didn't like them! The only leaves they would eat were oak leaves. Thankfully we have one large oak tree near our home, and literally we had to stuff leaves into the jar every other day because they would get consumed. After about two weeks of eating, they then would spin a cocoon and about five days later would emerge as a moth. We had many moth releasing parties on our deck!


Quote of the day: For it is in giving that we receive. ~ Francis of Assisi


This morning we flew to Memphis, TN. My first time visiting Blues City. This is what things looked like from the air. We left a grey, overcast, and depressing day in DC (of which we are almost going on a straight week of that) and landed to sunshine! 

We are attending the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Educational Specialists (APHOES) Conference (http://www.aphoes.wildapricot.org/page-1860748). We were invited to APHOES' conference in Columbus, OH in May of 2014. They asked us to be their keynote speakers. From that moment on, we have remained connected with this group. They are a wonderful, warm, dynamic, and innovative group of professionals who contributed to the school standard in our psychosocial standards of care. It is very touching that two years later, they would invite us back to their conference and grant us the Bridge Award. 

Here is a description of the award.........................................

The APHOES Bridge Award recognizes the contributions of an individual or group whose work reflects the mission of APHOES: bridging the gap between hospital and school for children with cancer and blood disorders.

APHOES supports and honors the commitment and expertise of those who have had an impact upon the educational outcomes of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology patients. The APHOES Bridge Award will be awarded annually, with the inaugural award presented at the 2014 conference.


Individuals and groups outside of APHOES perform a wide range of critical roles that enhances the ongoing work of APHOES.  They may advise, advocate, legislate, fund, discover, invent, and promote, in support of the goals of our organization.  This award is intended to honor the special accomplishments of individuals or groups whose efforts provide a benefit to APHOES, its members, or the children, families, and schools we serve.

I snapped this photo of Peter at the Memphis Airport. There was this musical display which in my mind deserved to be photographed!










After checking into the hotel, we asked for input as to where to have lunch. They encouraged us to walk (about three or four blocks) to Beale Street, which is like New Orlean's Bourbon Street. 
Peter snapped several photos of what we were seeing. What the photos can't capture though are the sounds. There is live BLUES music playing everywhere. Literally from our hotel room, I can hear a saxophonist! But it is everywhere, in the restaurants and on the streets. 




The architecture of Beale
Street is interesting, but it is hard to know what to look at first. The structures or the people. We ran into groups upon groups just wandering the streets drinking beer, on a Wednesday at 2pm. 








This is a close up of the photo above. The sign above this restaurant was hysterical: Pig --- Pork with Attitude!!!

The restaurant we ate at was Blues City and literally their tag line is "put a little south in your mouth." 

Beale Street is filled with bars and music. It reminds me of a blend between New Orleans and Las Vegas, if that is possible. 
 More of Beale Street!
 Final photo! 

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