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

August 6, 2017

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Tonight's picture was taken on August 9, 2008. Mattie was adjusting to being in the hospital and was receiving his first round of chemotherapy that week. Early on during Mattie's battle, friends came practically daily to visit him. I think taking any child to visit someone in the hospital is daunting and scary. But parents really rose to the occasion and wanted to be supportive and they wanted their children to understand what was happening (to a certain extent) to their classmate. Naturally as Mattie's condition got worse, his disabilities more severe, and his prognosis more grim, the visits stopped. Mattie truly did not want to interact with others from the outside world as he understood all too well how his life was changing. Right from the beginning Linda (Mattie's child life specialist) was there to help not only Mattie and me, but all his friends who came to visit him in the hospital. As you can see, Linda set up a painting party on the floor right outside Mattie's room. This helped his friends engage with him through an activity they were all familiar with, which helped his friends transition better into the hospital experience. 


Quote of the day: Once you have a clear idea of your priorities – that is your values, goals and high leverage activities, organize around them. ~ Stephen Covey


Last weekend we took on the project of organizing our front hallway closet. Today's challenge was the walk in closet in Mattie's bedroom. This is the largest closet in our home and it becomes a catch all closet. It is filled with my graduate school things, Mattie's things, and Foundation things. You would be amazed what I have packed into this closet. I have purged this closet numerous times already, but today my initial focus was the first three shelves. As you can see Sunny was sitting by Mattie's bedroom door watching the process. Peter helped me organize things from the closet into categories. Making it easier to find things in the closet. 

I am happy to report that six large garbage bags of items were removed from the closet. A majority of which will be donated and some things go directly into the garbage. I imagine the closet still looks like a mess to you, but my three shelves on the left hand side have a semblance of order now. 

There is a lot of truth to Covey's quote tonight. When I go through my closet and assess it now, I only keep things that match my priorities. Which for me means things focused on childhood cancer and the Foundation. So with this philosophy in mind it really made tossing things much easier. Nonetheless, there are many of Mattie's favorite toys in this closet, not to mention all of our Christmas decorations. Things Mattie LOVED. I have yet to deal with these items, and for the most part they usually get shuffled around the closet. I was in NO MOOD to address any of this today, but do feel good about what we did accomplish last weekend and this weekend. 

1 comment:

MargyJost said...

I could hug Mattie's Child Life Specialist. We would so have gotten a long well. I loved doing the floor projects with big sheets of paper, paints, markers, whatever the kids wanted. The smiles & involvement was so present. Everyone worked at their speed and how they saw their area.

Closet cleaning is a daunting task. But true when you have a goal, focus, it is not as hard to toss! As far as Mattie's things go, why do you ever have to get rid of them? Special items of our lives are meant to save. They help keep a memory present with their presence on a shelf or sitting on a table. I would keep those forever