Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2008. Mattie had just begun chemotherapy and one of the diversions his art therapists got us engaged in was painting a clinic ceiling tile! Though his therapists had just gotten to know us, they quickly deduced that Mattie LOVED Scooby Doo. So they literally sketched a Scooby Doo scene on a tile and then over the course of a couple of weeks we painted it in. As you can see this was a photo of us with the tile. This tile still remains on the ceiling of Georgetown's outpatient clinic today.
Quote of the day: The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive, but do not forget. ~ Thomas Szasz
So before I left Boston, I emailed Maureen. Maureen immediately responded and took it upon herself to look at the Mattie Miracle website and the work that we do. Given how she responded I felt that she was speaking from the personal experience of losing a child. Not just a person working for the town of Woburn helping to process a request.
I asked Maureen if she lost a child too, and she shared her nightmare with me. A nightmare that inspired her to get an Angel of Hope statue in her town. I totally appreciate her sentiments, but am truly in awe of her courage. Her story is VERY different from mine and I encourage you to visit her website about Nolan, her 22 year old son who died on a vacation trip to Mexico. The issues that Maureen highlights are so startling and impact hundreds of US tourists a year, that she took the tragedy of her son's death (or in a way murder) to start a non-profit called Mexico Vacation Awareness.
In essence Nolan went to Mexico as a graduation present from college. While at a top resort in Cancun, he went swimming. However, he hit his head in the pool and lost consciousness. There wasn't a life guard on duty, so fellow guests rescued him and one was a trauma room nurse from Canada who tried to perform life saving measures on him. However, this nurse was physically restrained by the hotel's doctor and was prevented from intervening. After Nolan's death the nurse contacted Maureen and recounted what happened, as did many other guests who reported wrong doing on behalf of the hotel. When the paramedics showed up, they did not try to resuscitate Nolan. Instead they threw a blanket over his head and pronounced him dead. No one from the hotel ever contacted the family! If that is not bad enough, they left Nolan's dead body by the side of the pool for four hours. The story is actually gruesome and I can only imagine the pain of hearing this news from witnesses. Knowing that from their perspective Nolan would be alive today, if the proper interventions were performed.
Nolan's story is horrific enough, but there are countless others of loved ones being killed because of corrupt police or negligence on the part of hotels with poor safety and security measures. I found Maureen's website so upsetting because unlike cancer, it seems to me that such accidents could be prevented. She is advocating that the US government provide better warnings to tourists going to Mexico.
http://mexicovacationawareness.com/
1 comment:
Vicki,
I am so very sorry for this Mom! I too, find her courage astounding and the obvious wrongdoing extremely troubling. Many people who do amazing things for others, have experienced great tragedy in their own lives.
The stone, you left in memory of Mattie is wonderful. I am happy that Nolan's Mom responded to you so quickly and you were able to do it on this visit. I plan to visit her website.
I love the SCOOBY DOO ceiling tile. I know how to get to Mattie's tree but I would still like to see the brick? and the ceiling tile, if people are allowed to come into this area at the Georgetown Clinic
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