Wednesday, August 24, 2011Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2007. Mattie was five years old. Each summer we took Mattie to California to visit my parents. Several years in a row, my parents took all of us to Coronado, in San Diego. Outside our hotel there was a man made lake with a fountain. Surrounding this body of water were flamingos. What I love about this picture is that I captured Mattie doing his flamingo impression, with one leg up in the air. This was how he observed flamingos resting and he wanted me to remember this fact.
Quote of the day: In youth one has tears without grief; in age, griefs without tears. ~ Joseph Roux
I began my day by reading the front page of the Food section of The Washington Post. On this page I found a wonderful article about the professional lobbyist, Brett Thompson, who is helping the Mattie Miracle Cancer Foundation. However, the article wasn't about his day job, but instead about his other passion, BBQ sauce. Brett and a former colleague of his, Heath, teamed up to design, create, bottle, and sell a wonderful one of a kind BBQ sauce. A sauce that has won them several significant awards, such as the most recent which was first place at the National Capital BBQ Battle. This sauce is sold nationwide and in addition, this dynamic duo is opening up a local restaurant and several others to follow within the year. Click here to read the Post article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/smoke-signals-on-the-brink-of-a-new-barbecue-era/2011/08/16/gIQAChWcZJ_story.html
I find it quite ironic how we met Brett. It all began in 2010 when he donated a case of his BBQ sauce to our Walk to raffle off as a prize. We accepted this contribution but then several months later had the opportunity to thank and meet Brett in person. Of course, when Peter and I met Brett for coffee, we had no idea he was a lobbyist, and also had no idea that he wanted to take us on as a probono client. Brett is a special person to us and the Foundation, and I was so happy to read about his incredible success with his company.
Peter and I had the wonderful opportunity to meet up with Maureen, the executive director, and Lauren, the director of public policy, of the Children's Cause Cancer Advocacy (CCCA). For more information on CCCA, please visit: http://www.childrenscause.org/. It was lovely to catch up with these women and to hear about the wonderful things their organization is achieving for pediatric cancer. I appreciate their inclusion of us and their willingness to get us involved in their events. But most of all I value their sincerity and mission to help children and their families with pediatric cancer. I have been extremely disillusioned by some of the other pediatric cancer groups and when you find an organization like CCCA, I feel it is important to acknowledge their integrity.
It was a busy day, but in the midst of this day, I find am feeling very run down and have a low grade fever. Despite that, I met up with Ann and her cousin, JP, for lunch today. It was my chance to say goodbye to JP, since he is headed back to Boston this evening. This evening, Peter and I are having dinner with Jerry and Nancy from the Hospital. As my faithful readers know, Jerry and Nancy were the dynamic music volunteers who always got us singing and at times they helped us forget about the endless battle we were fighting. Mattie loved his time with Jerry and Nancy, so much so, that they developed a Name that Tune game just for Mattie. The game was rigged in a way, since Jerry and I would email each other days before the game took place, to make sure Mattie indeed knew all the songs they were going to play for him and thereby be able to win a prize. Our goal was to get Mattie engaged, moving around, and stimulated. Most times we were successful. Though Mattie is gone from all of our lives, the connection Mattie created between us and Jerry and Nancy is alive and well.
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