Sunday, February 24, 2019

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken on Mother's Day in May of 2007. We went to one of Mattie's favorite restaurants in Maryland to celebrate the day. He liked it especially because of this little pond with fish and turtle out front. Ironically we visited this restaurant today, and unfortunately we did not enjoy the food or reliving the experience. 



Quote of the day: Unspeakable feelings need to find expression in words. However... verbalization of very intense feelings may be a difficult task. ~ James A. Chu

Our friends invited us to a musical today, performed by a local teen stage company. The performance was held in Rockville, MD. One of our friend's runs this performance group and her husband, who is also our friend, is dealing with brain cancer. Needless to say, we wanted to show our support to both of them. 

Take the Stage Performance Company is truly a remarkable group of talented and energetic young people who are interested in theatre. Their commitment of time toward rehearsals to pull off such a professional show is noteworthy. I was thrilled to see a full audience. This Performance Company partakes in our annual candy drive and two years ago ran a musical fundraiser for Mattie Miracle. 


I would say there were multiple triggers for us today. First of which was driving to Rockville, MD. We used to take Mattie to Rockville for various things. Starting with the fact that my favorite baby store is there, Buy Buy Baby. Since Mattie's death, we rarely go to this part of Maryland anymore. So driving there today seemed a bit jolting. Then we saw our friend who is managing with cancer. It is hard to see the effects of this horrible disease on those we love. Seeing our friend reminded us of our time with Mattie when he was so ill, not to mention our own mortality. As life has a way of going unscripted.

The teens performed 15 songs today, filled with incredible choreography, lighting, and costumes. One of the most touching songs for Peter and I was entitled, Costume Party, which came from the musical, Come From Away. I have yet to see this musical, but as a synopsis, it is set in the week following the September 11 attacks and tells the true story of what transpired when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada as part of Operation Yellow Ribbon. The characters in the musical are based on (and in most cases share the names of) real Gander residents as well as some of the 7,000 stranded travelers they housed and fed.

The song, Costume Party, truly captures the trauma of these isolated passengers, away from friends, family, and their Country. The title of the song is meaningful. For example, passengers were given clean clothes to wear from the people of Newfoundland. Between the different clothes, living in new surroundings, and surrounded by strangers this made them feel like they were not themselves..... in essence that they were part of a costume party. Yet they knew internally who they were and what they were experiencing, but it is the tension, anxiety, and agitation of living with a trauma that I feel is captured so well in this song. I included a link to the Broadway song here, in case you want to hear it:  https://www.billboard.com/video/cast-of-come-from-away-performs-for-billboard-on-broadway-series-7752342

 After the show, we went to Mattie's restaurant. In honor of him I snapped a photo of the koi fish swimming about. 

If you look at the photo of Mattie and me from above, you will notice that it was taken in this same location. It is hard to believe that the restaurant exists but Mattie doesn't. All in all, today left me feeling fragile and very aware of the uncertainty in life.