Thursday, May 23, 2019

Thursday, May 23, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2009. It is hard to believe that four months later, Mattie died. At that point in time, we had every hope that Mattie's cancer would go into remission and we could focus that summer on physical rehabilitation. After all, we all thought Mattie would return to school in the Fall. No one, including his doctors thought his cancer would spread with a vengeance only six weeks off of chemotherapy.  

Mattie loved our cat Patches, however, because of Mattie's immuno-compromised state, we boarded Patches at our vet for almost a year. In lieu of our cat, Mattie had this cute stuffed animal, which he'd like to have sit on his lap. To this day, this cat resides in Mattie's bedroom. 


Quote of the day: Real courage is doing the right thing when nobody's looking. Doing the unpopular thing because it's what you believe, and the heck with everybody. ~ Justin Cronin

This evening my parents returned to Los Angeles. Before leaving, we went out to lunch at Mattie's favorite restaurant. He loved this place, as it was close to his preschool and there was a pond outside the front entrance. When Mattie would get bored at the dining table, outside we went to look at the koi. 

A fellow diner was kind enough to snap this photo of us!

Seems like the fundraising thermometer jumped $1,000 from last night. I think this maybe the final total.... $118,272!

Meanwhile the exciting news is that Peter was selected by the Washington Nationals as their "unsung hero."

Somehow I am on the Nats listerv and therefore I get communications from the team. When I saw the email announcement about the community contest, I immediately thought of Peter and applied last week! Because I was in over my head with Walk plans, I couldn't devote a ton of time to crafting an 100 word submission. But I wrote from the heart and it was easy! When I applied for this, I never really looked closely at the event date. But it happens to be this Saturday and we already had plans to fly to Maine to attend our nephew's college graduation. 

Last night, I received an email from the Nats, thanking me for my nomination of Peter and letting me know he won. Therefore, we needed to be present at the pre-game ceremonies this Saturday. At first, I wrote to thank the Nats, but explained we wouldn't be able to attend. However, since this is a once in a lifetime chance, I changed my mind and I encouraged Peter to rearrange our flights so he could attend. 

I asked the Nats representative how many people applied and how many will be acknowledged. She said 60 applied and four will be acknowledged on Saturday. Quite lovely I think! The Nats have been very accommodating. We will be there for the pre-game ceremony, but then running to catch a flight. All unsung heroes are given two free tickets that day to see the game. Because we will be running to the airport, they are willing to allow me to give our tickets to friends. 

I am so glad Peter will be acknowledged on Saturday, and also happy that Mattie Miracle's name will be announced to the whole stadium. Below is the submission I wrote to the Nats.............................

Peter lost his only child, Mattie, to bone cancer. Mattie was only 7 years old. In memory of Mattie, Peter created the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation. To date the Foundation has helped over 25,000 children with cancer. Peter works tirelessly to bring awareness to the psychological and social issues that arise from childhood cancer. This year, he helped raise over $125,000, spread awareness to over 400 people, all while taking no salary from the Foundation. Peter experienced the worst nightmare faced by any parent, and yet honors his son’s life and memory by selflessly helping others impacted by this disease.