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

October 1, 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Tuesday, October 1, 2013 -- Mattie died 211 weeks ago today.

Tonight's picture was taken in October of 2007. We took Mattie to Butler's Orchard that weekend to their fall festival. Mattie loved fall festivals and each fall we practically went to one every weekend! Mattie loved the rides, picking out pumpkins, and some even had farm animals to pet. I however was the only one of the three of us who got a kick out of the fall festival foods!


Quote of the day: The best antidote I know for worry is work. The best cure for weariness is the challenge of helping someone who is even more tired. One of the great ironies of life is this: He or she who serves almost always benefits more than he or she who is served. ~ Gordon B. Hinckley


I found tonight's quote and I thought it was absolutely beautiful! I think this maybe the motto for the bereaved..... those who serve always benefit!!! I had another night of no sleep and a raging headache. However, despite that I had a full day of conference calls in the morning followed by non-stop computer work. Not the best plan for a headache. Peter and I have been invited to present at a conference in Dallas, Texas next week. Thanks to technology, we are doing this remotely. I is hard for me to present without being in the same room as those I am presenting to, especially as it relates to sharing a personal story and dialoguing about the Foundation's vision for a psychosocial standard of care. However, I know people do it all the time, so I might as well start some place.

Tomorrow the Foundation hosts its first ever Chocolate Therapy workshop at the Georgetown University Hospital. In September, a friend of mine connected me to Robbin Warner(http://www.writingwithchocolate.com/category/recipes/). 
Robbin is a local chocolatier who studied chocolate making in Belgium. Last week, Robbin and I did a walk through of the Hospital's pediatric clinic for set up purposes, so we should be set to go tomorrow. Children and teens will have the opportunity to learn fun facts about chocolate, do a tasting, create their own tasty treats, and even decorate their bags, aprons, and hats. The children will be working with real chocolate that is melted and then hardens. Most of us do not have access to such chocolate! 

I certainly know Mattie would have disapproved of this workshop, since he HATED chocolate. Everything about it from its smell to its taste. Nonetheless, since childhood cancer is a family affair, and I thrived on chocolate, I decided to try this venue. It is a fact that the most popular item on our free snack cart at the Hospital is CHOCOLATE, so my hunch is this could be a popular workshop. I have a feeling Mattie is most likely laughing down at me tonight, and I can only imagine what he would be saying about tomorrow's workshop. I have no doubt Mattie would have given Robbin a run for her money!

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