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 2, 2020

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2007. Each December, we took Mattie to the US Botanical Gardens. What I loved about the Gardens were they were kept hot and humid. Almost like Florida on a hot day. In the middle of winter, it was like being transported into a warmer climate. The Gardens also decorated beautifully for the holidays, with trees, flowers, and even motorized trains. Of course Mattie loved the trains. While walking around the Gardens, we got a kick out of this hanging plant. Mattie stood underneath it and I joked with him that it looked like he had a huge head of hair. 



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

  • number of people diagnosed with the virus: 13,900,350
  • number of people who died from the virus: 273,170

I got up this morning at 4am. As I can't start the day without a shower! Some people need coffee, I need a shower. Then I wanted to make sure I unloaded the dishwasher and made my mom breakfast. Seemed like a nice way to leave, as I know it is hard on my mom when I am not there to balance the daily grind. 

It was unheard of, I got from my parent's house to the actual airport gate (meaning through security) in 45 minutes. During pre-COVID times it can take 90 minutes negotiating through traffic to get to the airport, and then another 30 or more minutes to get through security. Once at the airport, it was decorated for Christmas and can you see the Christmas train up near the window arches? Mattie LOVED his Christmas train that would circulate around our tree. He would have appreciated this sighting today! In any case, I had to snap a photo! But despite sitting in a terminal waiting to board a plane with a mask on for HOURS, it was nice to be surrounded by Christmas lights and music. It actually made the mood lighter. 

If someone showed me this photo, I would immediately know it is LAX, the Los Angeles Airport. Not because of the control tower, but because of that funny dome liked structure to the right of the tower. That is the FAMOUS Theme Building, which once housed a restaurant. 




LAX is undergoing major expansion and modernization, including a new people-mover train scheduled to open in 2023, Los Angeles World Airports officials are looking for ways to bring a hotel into the core area that includes the Theme Building. Some say that the Theme was designed to symbolize a jet-age future, it looks like a big, white, concrete-and-steel spider. Since 1961, it has loomed over the airport as an icon of the Midcentury Modern style in Southern California. Beneath its twin parabolic arches, there’s a big, round, glass-walled dining room (now idle) that generations of confused travelers have mistaken for the airport’s traffic control tower. Above the restaurant area is an observation deck (also mostly idle). Airport officials are not suggesting the Theme Building become a hotel. But they’re wondering whether it might work as a restaurant or conference center with a hotel next door or nearby. That would be LAX’s first on-site lodging.


It was another beautiful day in LA! My view during take off. 
Look closely, do you see the faint Mattie Moon staring at me?

Because of my issues with motion and anxiety over flying, I now had to have a window seat. I need to control that window shade, because I find looking out helps both my stomach and my brain. Yet the one down fall is that I have to jump over my seat mate to get to the bathroom. My seat mate today was a pip. He came in smelling of marijuana. I am not a fan of this substance and I definitely am not a proponent of legalizing pot. If you disagree, then I suggest you spend some time living in a city where it is legalized, like DC. The smell is noxious and though you aren't supposed to smoke it in public, it is everywhere and is sickening. I am waiting for the evidence years from now that cites the mental health and physical consequences such as cancer from legalizing what once was a controlled substance. Needless to say, I felt like I smelled like him throughout the flight. 

Any case, at some point during the flight, I had to get my seat mate up so I could use the restroom. When I approached the restroom, a female flight attendant told me someone was in the bathroom and I had to go back to my seat and wait. That I couldn't wait near the airplane door. I literally said no! I know how this works, if I returned to my seat I would then be competing with others who also need to go. So she walked away from me, and I spoke with her male colleague. A much more pleasant and professional individual. I basically told him that his colleague is a "piece of work."

When I entered the plane this morning, I said hello to this same female flight attendant and commented that it was an early morning. Of which her retort was.... it did not bother her because she was on East coast time. A very self involved person, and clearly not good at greeting people and making small talk. So she already set me off. Then when she confronted me about waiting for the restroom, I had it. I told her male colleague that if she said one more thing to me, I was writing her up!


My view flying into DC. I was happy to at least see the sun, and not be greeted with DC grayness.
You know you have landed in DC!
Peter shared this photo with me today! Indie can't leave Peter alone, and was jumping all around him while he was working at his desk. 

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