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

November 8, 2010

Monday, November 8, 2010

Monday, November 8, 2010

Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2006. Mattie was four years old. We took Mattie to his favorite restaurant for Easter. What Mattie did not expect was a life sized bunny coming over to the table to greet him and give him gifts. Mattie handled this encounter much better than I did at his age. My mom still tells some great stories about when I first met Santa Claus and don't get her started on the Easter Bunny. Some how both of these characters scared me to death. I usually landed up hiding under a table to avoid being singled out. Mattie however, looked to me that day, and when I told him it was okay, he seemed to play right along and of course smiled. What a great smile.

Quote of the day: I never spoke to God nor visited in heaven; yet certain am I of the spot as if the chart were given. ~ Emily Dickinson


As I was reading through the book of grief poems my friend and colleague, Denise gave me, I came across this one by Emily Dickinson. I would like to have her certainty about heaven. It is somewhat ironic that many of the foundational components of Catholicism that I grew up with, I accepted, and I did not question them. However, when Mattie developed cancer and then died, not only did this rock my world, but it also shook my entire belief system. In my pre-cancer world, children did not get terminal illnesses and die (well at least not the children I knew). But seeing cancer up close and slowly devour your child, changes everything. Suddenly everything I held dear and understood did not make sense anymore. So there are times I wonder is there a heaven, is Mattie in it, and is he okay? Certainly these are questions with NO answers forthcoming. I can only hope that Mattie is out of pain, is happy, and is having a chance to live his childhood in peace somewhere else.

There was nothing wrong with today, and yet nothing right with it either. I spent the day at home. Working on many different projects. So unlike my usual report, I really do not have much to say. My furry companion, Patches, was by my side today, as I was working around our home. When Peter got home tonight, we had a conversation about the upcoming holiday season. Neither one of us is prepared for this, not that we were last year, but this year the magnitude of Mattie's loss seems far greater, and as Peter says to me all the time...... how are we going to pull out of this feeling?! Great question, of which I really do not have an answer. Other than taking it one day at a time. The next couple of days I am having lunch with friends and then have one hospital event to attend on Thursday and a licensure board meeting on Friday. So this will force me to get out, interact, and be productive.

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