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

November 27, 2016

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2008. Mattie was home recovering from his second limb salvaging surgery. After that surgery Mattie was wheel chair bound. Despite the pain and medical traumatic stress Mattie was contending with, we tried as much as possible to give him opportunities to be a child, to experience the season, and though he couldn't run, we tried to be his legs for him. 










Quote of the day: This is the finest measure of thanksgiving: a thankfulness that springs from love. William C. Skeath


This afternoon we went to see a play entitled, A Nice Family Christmas. The plot is as follows............

It's Christmas Eve in Minnesota. A young newspaper reporter, on the brink of being fired, has been assigned a last chance story about a typical family Christmas - his family. He goes home to his recently widowed mother, his crazy uncle, and eccentric grandmother as well as battling siblings and neurotic spouses with no shortage of juicy secrets and family squabbles. 

The play received an excellent review (see below), but have you ever watched something so profoundly dysfunctional and said to yourself.... that isn't funny!!!? This is where this play borders on, or at least it did for me. It is trying to address difficult issues in a funny way through family dynamics, but in the end it seemed more grating and trite than anything else. I did not laugh more than a couple of times during the play and found no redeeming moral life lesson, which I would hope for given that it is a Christmas play! 

REVIEW:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/BWW-Review-A-NICE-FAMILY-CHRISTMAS-at-GROUPOrep-20161107

Though I came for a visit during Thanksgiving, Christmas lights have gone up all over town. In a neighboring community to my parents is the “Starlight Hills.” The Starlight Hills group of homeowners has been meeting socially since 1960 and counts five past city officials as well as very “active” current members of the community among its members. 

They are best known for placing illuminated “Holiday Stars” in their front yards during the Holiday season, the group meets monthly to plan social gatherings and outings as well as to keep updated on what’s happening in their neighborhood and in the city in general. The group is not a formal homeowners association, but rather epitomizes the best what the term “neighborhood” is all about in Burbank.

It maybe hard to determine from these photos, but these stars are HUGE. Some are at least 6 feet tall, if not taller. The stars capture your attention immediately and it is very special to be driving through these twinkling hills in the holiday season. 
Just image driving up hills at night, and seeing one beautiful star after the other. It is unique and magical. 

1 comment:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki , I like that, " a thankfulness that springs from love". An excellent quote, particularly true about family & friends in our life.

I would not have enjoyed the Play. I never quite see the humor in dysfunction. Not all dysfunction is the same but nevertheless it is not funny, even though sometimes there are lines that just leap out and cause laughter. I have seen my share of serious topic where the playwright creates a so called comedy out of true tragedy. People who live in a dysfunctional world, most often are trying to get out of it! However, there are plenty of people who find this kind of humor entertaining. I have been told on more than on occasion in a discussion of a p,at or movie, that Intake story lines too seriously. After all, it was meant for entertainment. I believe one can learn from entertainment and heavy topics like a dysfunctional family could be a learning experience but certainly wouldn't contain much humor.

I find it very sad to realize Mattie was wheelchair bound after the limb salvaging surgeries. I am not sure what I thought resulted after those surgeries considering more than one limb was involved. The picture is beautiful with Mattie all bundled for the weather and the knowledge that youn& Peter did everything possible to be his legs!!!