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

June 26, 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2002, at Mattie's baptism.  Mattie was baptized by Father Jim Greenfield. I met Jim when I was in graduate school at the George Washington University. Jim has been a part of milestone moments with me...... he gave me my first clinical client, he gave Peter and I pre-cana so we could marry in the Catholic church, he baptized Mattie, and also presided over Mattie's funeral. What I love about this photo was Jim's finger up in the air, to signal "the first time." Jim let our family and friends know that in all his years baptizing babies, Mattie was the first who did not cry when water was poured over his head. Mattie instead smiled. In so many ways, Mattie was an unusual child. It started from the moment he was born. He was ALWAYS very on, engaged, and some would say demanding. But now that we know Mattie had cancer and then died at the age of 7, I believe that Mattie knew his life on earth was going to be short. Therefore, he had to accomplish a lot in a short period of time. Matthew means "a gift from God," and I do believe Mattie was here to do God's work. 


Quote of the day: Each time the world needs an extra touch of love and gentle caring, God creates Godparents. ~ unknown



This afternoon we headed to a church in Arlington, VA, Our Lady Queen of Peace, to attend the baptism of Charlotte. Charlotte's parents asked Peter and I to serve as Charlotte's Godparents. Certainly we are familiar with this process and are even the Godparents for our niece. But we never had friends ask us to serve this important role. 

I would like to think we had our hand in even naming Charlotte. When Peter and I were visiting St. Thomas in December of 2015, we posted a photo from the capital city of the Island.... Charlotte Amalie. Charlotte's parents loved the name of the town and decided when they had their daughter a few months later, she would be called Charlotte Amalie. 


From left to right are:

Gladys (Charlotte's grandmother), Koseth (Charlotte's mom), Cesar (Charlotte's dad), Vicki and Peter
What I should mention is the entire mass and baptism was in Spanish. This was a true cultural experience for us! Fortunately we are familiar with the nature of the Catholic mass, but honestly even so, things were done differently here. It was far more lively and a ton of music throughout the mass. Much more so than in a typical Catholic mass. 

The priest was a charmer. In his 80's and from Boston. However, he served for years in Bolivia and Peru and speaks Spanish like a native. He has a real following at this church. Peter and I tried to follow along as best we could and of course whether in Spanish or English, the baptism process is the same. 

For a good portion of the mass, Charlotte sat on my lap and between Peter and I, we were entertaining her. We learned from the master.... Mattie! Charlotte is a very well behaved baby and was really engaged with her surroundings. But naturally the experience brought us both back in time when Mattie was a baby, when he was baptized and we thought we had a whole life time ahead with each other. It makes NO SENSE to me why some children are selected to have cancer and die and others lead happy and healthy lives. I think I am completely jaded because unlike other people unaffected by childhood cancer, I no longer look at marriages, having a baby, and other happy childhood events the same way! To me I now look at them with the lens of.... you better enjoy this moment, because you are not guaranteed happiness or good fortune in life despite how hard you work, how "good" you may be, or how you feel you have control over your destiny.  

2 comments:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki,

Thank you for posting pictures from Mattie's Baptism as well as Charlotte's Batism today. The role of a godparent is important. Many times it is seen as symbolic of the happy occassion however I do believe godparents can play an important role in this life!
I was quite taken by the photo of Mattie, looking right into Peter's eyes. It is indeed a beautiful picture.

I too, often wonder about the way life works. There certainly is the mingling of sheer joy and devastating sorrow. Which is the stronger of the two. I believe love conquers all but joy is not love. Devastating sorrow like Mattie's death from cancer is so unfair. It puts into perspective, what live in the moment means. There was no way you could see in that beautiful exchange of looks between Mattie and Peter, what the future would be. Yet this look spoke volumes to me.

Margy Jost said...

Vicki,

Thank you for posting pictures from Mattie's Baptism as well as Charlotte's Batism today. The role of a godparent is important. Many times it is seen as symbolic of the happy occassion however I do believe godparents can play an important role in this life!
I was quite taken by the photo of Mattie, looking right into Peter's eyes. It is indeed a beautiful picture.

I too, often wonder about the way life works. There certainly is the mingling of sheer joy and devastating sorrow. Which is the stronger of the two. I believe love conquers all but joy is not love. Devastating sorrow like Mattie's death from cancer is so unfair. It puts into perspective, what live in the moment means. There was no way you could see in that beautiful exchange of looks between Mattie and Peter, what the future would be. Yet this look spoke volumes to me.