Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2007. We took Mattie to Luray Caverns in Virginia. This commercial cave is a trip to remember. Mattie loved it and managed through most of the tour, until we got to the big Great Stalacpipe Organ. An organ that makes it sounds by mallets hitting 37 naturally formed stalactites. The sound is truly overwhelming, loud, and it seems to shake the entire cave. At which point Mattie headed right to Peter to be picked up! Mattie was a lot braver than me, because even as an adult, going into a cave is not fun or natural to me.
Quote of the day: Everything yields to diligence. ~ Thomas Jefferson
I feel like Peter and I live by Jefferson's quote. One thing we are as it relates to the Foundation, and that is diligent. There are NO down days, no days when we are not working on a Mattie Miracle project, returning emails, processing paperwork, and so forth. I do believe that it is this diligence and hard work that has gotten us where we are today.
But sometimes this pace is hard to manage. I have forgotten what weekends are like when you get out, have plans, and do something other than working. This is definitely one of the side effects of losing a child to cancer. You need to fill this immense void in your life, and for me, the way I have learned to cope is through the diversion of hard work. When Mattie was alive, occupying his time, finding things to stimulate his very active brain, and participating and socializing with the world around us described our weekends. I am quite sure that without Mattie in my life, I wouldn't have experienced Luray Caverns, metamorphosis with tent moth caterpillars, or digging for sharks teeth at Calvert Cliffs to name a few. When I hear what my friends are doing with their children on the weekends, it is hard to take. Mainly because I feel like they are part of the world and continue to experience it whereas I am interacting with it in quite a different way.
This afternoon, Peter and I took Sunny for a walk. Thank goodness for Sunny, because otherwise, especially in the cold, I wouldn't be moving from home. Look at this lovely spring garden we passed along our journey. It did not feel like spring outside, but with all these pops of color, one would think otherwise.
1 comment:
Vicki,
How do you store all these precious pictures of Mattie? MATTIE MIRACLE will succeed because diligence is needed. You & Peter are and will continue to make a difference in the world of Childhood Cancer. Everytime, I see a Mattie Moon, like on our ride home, I believe Mattie is reaching out saying, we never met but you know me! Thanks for telling me about MATTIE MOONS🌝🌙🌛
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