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 25, 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Sunday, June 25, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2003. Mattie was one year old. Peter snapped this photo of Mattie and me. Mattie was never wild about eating, and forget about sitting in his high chair. He thought the whole notion of being strapped into a chair and asked to eat, as curtailing his freedom and spirit. So to get Mattie to eat, it involved games, toys, and a lot of goofing around. As you can see I was doing all sorts of things and clearly Mattie had a big smile on his face! Once Mattie was distracted and in a good mood, you would be amazed at the amount of food I could get into his mouth!


Quote of the day: Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.Harper Lee




Harper Lee's quote about the mockingbird actually makes me laugh. I am laughing because for the past few weeks Sunny and I have been attacked by mockingbirds. At first I thought it was a fluke, but now I see a pattern. I literally feel like I am living a scene out of Hitchcock's movie, The Birds. I have never been scared of birds before, until these mockingbird encounters. But just like in Hitchcock's movie, I have observed mockingbirds staring at Sunny and I, following us with their eyes, and then dive bomb us, and NIP Sunny's hind legs. Poor Sunny doesn't get what's happening!!!

These mockingbird encounters have been bothering me so much that I researched the topic.... Mockingbirds nipping at dogs. The one article I found was from the 1950's, but it was SPOT ON:

Hailman wrote an article called, The Mockingbird's "tail up" display to mammals near the nesthttps://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals /wilson/v075n04/p0414-p0417.pdf


The article says, "The displaying bird orients itself facing the dog and cocks its tail vertically, spreading it slightly so that the white of the outer tail feathers lines the edges of the tail. The body is held nearly horizontally, with the head directed at the dog." 
At one time I liked mockingbirds, as they have an amazing vocal repertoire! Now if I see a mockingbird, I usually grab a hold of Sunny and head in a different direction!
This is in essence what I am seeing. Mockingbirds hover overhead, circling near us, as if they will land on my head. They never have, but each time they come and nip Sunny on the leg. 

The article says.... "In several cases, dogs did approach the nest, and this provoked the birds to attack, even though the dogs showed no overt hostility toward them. In these cases, the Mockingbird usually dived from the rear and slightly to the side of the moving dog and displayed its tail and wings quite prominently in the swoop. Several birds observed swooped to one side of the dog and then the other alternately for as many as eight passes without a break. Occasionally a diving Mockingbird actually struck a dog with its claws." 

1 comment:

Margy Jost said...

Vicki, I have never heard that about Mockingbirds but it clearly sounds like no fun for SUNNY💙

I love the picture of Mattie in the high chair. Mattie was a child with a mission. Sitting In a high chair was not on his listl