Friday, October 16, 2020

Friday, October 16, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2004. Mattie was two and a half years old. It was a tradition for us to go to every fall festival in our area with Mattie. Frankly this is not something I ever did growing up and since Mattie died, we haven't been back! Mattie loved being outside and he enjoyed picking pumpkins and checking out the hay lofts, the corn mazes, and other fall themed activities. 

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins. 

• number of people diagnosed with the virus: 8,039,642
• number of people who died from the virus: 218,448

I never expected to see this in my email inbox today! A message from Shutterfly. Certainly I use Shutterfly and have stored many photos of Mattie on their website over the years. However, I never remember receiving "memory" emails like the one I got today. Needless to say it was a surprise. The message highlighted our life 14 years ago. I am quite certain back then I did not even know children were diagnosed with cancer, much less could die from the disease. 

The message highlighted photos from one of our fall festival weekend trips in 2006! It was a fall tradition, and I think it is ironic that this series of photos would be sent to me today. As I have never received memory emails from Shutterfly before. I am sure there is a logical explanation for the message, but to me, it's a sign from Mattie. 

Meanwhile the highlight of our day was a walk on Roosevelt Island. There is always some wonder of nature to see on the Island. Here is the resident Great Blue Heron. 

Sunny always hears the deer before we see them!

A mother deer and her baby! A sighting Mattie would have absolutely loved. Of course, whenever I see animals with their young now, what pops  into my head is Mattie's reaction! He would always say.... they are just like us!