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

December 15, 2019

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2006. Mattie was four a half years old and by this point totally got Christmas. I can't say he liked decorating but he loved to see the tree, the lights, and the ornaments. His favorite part of the process was assembling his Christmas train around the tree. A Mattie tradition. 


Quote of the day: Listening is being able to be changed by the other person. ~ Alan Alda

Today I went out with a group of women I met when Mattie was in preschool. Rather ironic that these women are still a part of my life. We are close friends and they are loyal supporters of the Foundation. We went out to celebrate a friend's birthday, but in the process I came home with a gift. At first I looked at it and it appeared to be a seashell. I love seashells, but then saw there was a message associated with the shell. As we all know that if you put a seashell up to your ear, you will hear the sea. 

The necklace was to remind me that one of the gifts I have is my ability to listen to others. But as Alan Alda's quote points out listening enables both the listener and the one being listened to, to experience change. The change doesn't go just one way. As I believe every social interaction evokes an outcome, it causes us to pause, to absorb what is being said, and to process it and gain insight. The insight again goes both ways, as I have found I learn a lot from listening to people's thoughts and feelings, but I also know being the recipient of a kind ear helps me at times move forward. 

In any case, today's conversation was fascinating because we had a long discussion about what is a friend and at what point do you just stop the friendship because a connection is no longer positive or mutual. It never dawned on me that some of us (sitting around that table) have different view points about friendship. I am very clear in my mind as to what qualifies a friend. I am not attracted to friends because of their monetary or social status. That doesn't interest me in the least and unfortunately if this is what attracts you to a friend, then I do believe there will be trouble ahead. Because friendship has to be based on substance, core values and principles, and mutual respect. It requires both parties to work on cultivating the friendship as well. If you find that you are working too hard and that a so called friend is not there during your most difficult times, than that should be the first red flag. Either case, you can see it wasn't a light birthday brunch! 


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