Tonight's picture was taken in February of 2009. This was classic Mattie! I never saw other physical therapy sessions in the hospital looking quite like this! Mattie's physical therapist, Anna, truly rose to the occasion. She understood that getting Mattie to participate in therapy, meant that therapy had to be creative and engaging. Anna never disappointed. In order to get Mattie to move his body and use his legs, Anna would set up obstacle courses in the middle of the hospital hallways, and of course this intrigued Mattie and motivated him to participate.
Quote of the day: I love those who can smile in trouble. ~ Leonardo da Vinci
On my car trip from the airport, I got to know my driver. Literally he chatted with me for an entire hour. I got to know about him and to hear about some of his challenging car rides and the people he has had to deal with. When the ride was over, he literally said he felt better after talking to me. Then joked..... 'you should be a psychiatrist.' He made me laugh, and I said well in essence I am a therapist.
I have had a full day today, as my parents are now living in a hotel indefinitely. Their home flooded from the massive amounts of rain LA has been receiving. Literally the walls and floors in two rooms were affected. I got to go to the house today to talk with the contractor. Needless to say, this is a serious and extensive issue, that in my assessment will take over a month to clean up and renovate the space. Naturally the concern is mold and if the space isn't dried out soon, the threat of mold becomes more likely. Being here a week, I hope to watch the progress.
This evening, I received a lovely email from Bob Weiman, the associate head of Mattie's school. When Mattie was managing cancer, Bob came to the hospital very frequently to teach Mattie how to perform magic. Mattie absolutely loved his visits from the "Magic Man." Magic was very good for Mattie. Mattie felt good about himself because he was learning skills and techniques that were unique and helped him build rapport with his medical support staff. Mattie looked forward to Bob's visits and in those brief moments, you could see Mattie was happy and thriving despite all he was facing.
I know how special these moments were for Mattie and for us, but it was lovely to see Mattie incorporated into Bob's blog posting. Which leads me to conclude that the relationship was mutual, Mattie and Bob learned something from each other. I welcome you to read this wonderful article for yourself.
5 Reasons Your Child Should Learn Magic:
http://blog.sssas.org/5-reasons-your-child-should-learn-magic
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