Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. Mattie was in the child life playroom and wasn't happy at all, as you can see. That day, one of my former students, Pam, came to visit us. It is a sad commentary to say that both Mattie and Pam are now dead. Though Pam was happy to see Mattie, Mattie wasn't in the mood for company or to be social. Nor did he like people taking my attention away from him. It was truly mission impossible for me to balance visitors. The challenging part was some visitors (I am not referring to Pam in this case), did not understand Mattie's feelings nor did they understand that I did not have the energy to listen to their lives and stories. They were living regular lives and I was dealing with life and death crises each day. I am quite sure that if I was the one who was sick, I would have tossed all visitors out of my life. But in Mattie's case, he was a child, and I understood that the community wanted to help and support him. I also figured at some point Mattie would have to reintegrate back into the community, so it was better not to shut people out. Of course it never truly dawned on me that Mattie would die within a year.
Quote of the day: Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning do to do afterward. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
Today I found myself dealing with frustration. Don't ask me why! But I was. The roundtable maybe over, but requests for reimbursement from attendees is coming into me. Some of the reimbursement requests seem over the top to me. I would never ask a non-profit to pay certain things like food for myself, especially when we supplied food all day at the event. In the past, when the Foundation reimbursed people who work with us, I gave them a stipend. Meaning, I priced out the cost of their travel to an event and gave them a flat fee that contained some wiggle room for other small expenses. This time I did not do this because we had the good fortunate of having co-sponsorships which helped to cover a great deal of the expenses. Nonetheless, this kind of stuff sets me off.
I normally do not get wrapped up with TV stars who die, but today I learned that Mary Tyler Moore died, at the age of 80. I have a feeling Mary Tyler Moore influenced the lives of many women, given her progressive TV show that aired in the 1970's! Featuring a single woman in her thirties, working in a newsroom surrounded by men. At the very least, if you don't remember the show, you have to remember the theme song (Love is all around)! She was a very passionate person about two causes in particular, which also makes her noteworthy.
Mary Tyler Moore was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 33. Which led her to be a diabetes advocate and the International Chairman of JDRF (formerly the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). In this role, she used her celebrity to help raise funds and awareness of diabetes mellitus type 1.
She was also a long-time animal rights activist, Moore worked with Farm Sanctuary to raise awareness about the process involved in factory farming and to promote compassionate treatment of farm animals. She was also a co-founder of Broadway Barks, an annual animal adopt-a-thon held in New York City. Moore and friend Bernadette Peters worked to make it a no-kill city and to encourage adopting animals from shelters.
I attached this wonderful link featuring the shows theme song and some great snippets. Practically everyone on the Mary Tyler Moore show had notoriety. Which also contributed to the memorable nature of the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsFT1-4ibkU
1 comment:
Hi Vicki, I am hoping this response gets posted. I always start at the top when I have missed a couple blogs, For some reason, they failed to post, so I just kept scrolling down. Sunny in the middle of your bed delights me. The fact is he feels the love of your family, so his own nature is to give it back. I love this picture.
Mattie leading a Congo Dance Line to accomplish a PT treatment, is precious. It is also a true testimony that talented, experienced professionals can always find ways to engage a child, like Mattie who felt too horrible to try, but will, if they only use a little imagination.
I am sorry to learn through this blog that Mattie & your friend have both died. I took a long look at this picture! Both are no longer present on this earth, yet through a photo, I see life. I don't imagine people who do want to be present when a child is sick think about the child's feelings about visitors. It must have been hard to create a balance because social interaction is important as is support. But Childhood Cancer rips at the need to be social for kids in so much pain. I am grateful, you always post honesty!!!
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