Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2005. That week, we took Mattie to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We did that three summers in a row. In 2005, that was our last year going to North Carolina together. I have no idea why, but life is funny that way. You get busy, or you think there is no time. I am glad we did make the time early on and that we captured these moments on camera. The house we rented that year had a lovely porch swing. A place Mattie and I liked to go in the afternoon when it was hot and humid!
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 34,725,740
- Number of people who died from the virus: 612,022
Below is a letter I received from Mattie's hospital social worker (Denise) after he died. Denise came into our lives the first week Mattie was diagnosed, as children with cancer get assigned a doctor, social worker, case manager, and typically have access to child life specialist.
----------------------
Dear Peter and Vicki,
I have been trying to find the words to convey my sympathy and my heartbreak for the loss of your precious and very special son, Mattie. So many thoughts and memories have flooded my mind in the past two weeks, but I am still finding it difficult to express what I want to say. I realize as I sit here that the reason it is so difficult is because, I want to say something that will make it better, but there are no words that can do that.
Instead, I will just try to share my feelings. My first remembrance of Mattie is receiving an e-mail about a family meeting to discuss a new case and the patient's name was Mattie Brown. When I first saw the name, my heart skipped a beat and I wondered why someone was sending me an e-mail about my grandmother, because she had died many years ago before I was even born. I think I have shared with you before that my paternal grandmother's name was Mattie Brown and that was my association with the name. I never got to know my grandmother, but I did become very acquainted with your Mattie and I am eternally thankful for that.
Mattie was a very interesting child. I often marveled at the duality of his personality in that he was a wonderful, curious, creative, caring and energetic little boy and at the same time an insightful and wise "old soul." Mattie loved life and he enjoyed it thoroughly. He lived everyday fully, playing, inventing, creating, discovering, and engaging. He loved people, holding court, commanding an audience and directing the action. He had a sense of what he needed and how to get it, whether it was someone to play with, a creation to be developed, medication to ease his pain, or "quiet on the set."
I loved Mattie's creativity and artistry. He had inexhaustible imagination! He could take anything and make it something special. I love especially all of the cardboard box creations: haunted houses, elevators, and beaches. He could put a 1,000 piece puzzle together with ease, assemble any toy with just a blink at the directions and bring life to bugs, and flowers with his many scientific experiments that he enjoyed and his fascination with cockroaches is not to be forgotten.
The seasons and holidays will not be the same without Mattie. Mattie loved both. His room was full of holiday and seasonal creations. I was in a store just last week and they had a Halloween display up and I thought of Mattie and how much he loved creating holiday decorations and decorating his hospital room.
My favorite Mattie memory is his 7th birthday party in the child life playroom. Mattie's friends came to the hospital to celebrate his birthday. There was pizza and gifts and games and lots of staff there to celebrate Mattie. But, the highpoint of the day was when his friends arrived to celebrate his birthday. Mattie transformed from a boy with cancer with a leg in a cast and a wheelchair to just a boy. Enjoying his friends, enjoying his day! He was a gentleman and an excellent host. He was just a boy having fun, laughing, playing, eating pizza and doing the things children do. I loved and cherish that moment for him.
Mattie did not have length of years, but he lived his life with purpose. He taught by example. He challenged us to be better at what we do, to expand beyond what we are.... to develop the fullest potential of what we are created to be. He left us with a prescription for living:
- Live your life with purpose.
- Live fully and cherish every day.
- Enjoy life's simplicities.
- Walk completely in the gifts and talents that you have been blessed with.
- Touch someone else's life.
No comments:
Post a Comment