Tonight's picture was taken in April of 2009. Believe it or not, this photo was taken inside of Mattie's hospital room. What you may not be able to tell is this room is about the size of a walk in closet. For a closet it is huge, for a room to hold multiple people and equipment, it is small! Yet Mattie had a way of packing in the people and things. Mattie had the attention of the child life staff! Not an unusual occurrence for Mattie. From left to right were Robbie (child life volunteer), Linda (Mattie's child life specialist), and Meg (child life intern). It is funny, when people think of cancer, the immediate thing to focus upon is the medicine. Certainly that is crucial. But honestly it is a very small part of the treatment process, the rest of the battle is the day to day management, which is the psychosocial reality. This is where child life plays a significant role, and fortunately for us, when we were at Georgetown, there was a Linda Kim. I think people have some misconceptions about child life as being the women in the hospital responsible for play, babysitting, fun, and parties. Certainly there is a component of child life that encompasses this, because the work of a child is PLAY. But child life professionals are just that.... professionals who are well versed in child development, distraction techniques, workings with children in medical crises, medical play, advocacy, and normalizing very challenging situations that can arise for children with life threatening illnesses.
Quote of the day: The only people who think there is a time limit for grief, have never lost a piece of their heart. Take all the time you need. ~ Unknown
I had the opportunity today to visit Mattie's school and set up for tomorrow's class on Picasso. As I entered the campus, I could see Mattie's tree. Before Peter and I left for Florida, we ventured on campus to place an orange ribbon on Mattie's tree for his birthday. However, during that visit it was hailing. Today the sun was shining and the tree was starting to show the signs of spring. Since this is a new tree, I have no idea what its leaves look like. So I am anxious to see Mattie's tree unfurl its leaves. However, the orange bow and ribbon looked lovely blowing in the wind, along with all the other ornaments and chimes hanging from it.
While setting up for tomorrow, I had a lovely conversation with Donna and even got to see Leslie, Mattie's kindergarten teacher. Since I have done this for four years now, I have gotten to know some of the other faculty members in the building as well. I spent some time in the faculty lounge today with Donna cutting out shapes for our Matisse cutout project next week. Donna and I were busy chatting, as only educators can do. Some how educators can find a way to talk about anything. We have diverse interests and we find so many things stimulating. But Donna and I are also intrigued by feelings and the art of conversation and how you teach such skills to developing minds. So we had art and stimulating conversation today. Of course in the midst of this, Donna always talks about Mattie and the Foundation, which means a lot to me. Donna keeps me connected to children, to the kindergarten classrooms, and to the space in which Mattie once occupied.
When I got home today, I received a video in my email in-box entitled, "My rules, my game, my rules." This was a video clip Linda (Mattie's child life specialist) captured of Mattie at the hospital. Linda wanted me to know that "Mattie's memory is always alive at Georgetown!" I enjoyed seeing this today, and frankly I don't remember this moment at all. Which means I most likely wasn't in the playroom, and Mattie was interacting with the child life staff. I rarely left Mattie unsupervised. I only would leave him with certain people, Linda of course being one of those people. Check out the link below.... This was Mattie..... bold, fully on, and directive. Linda understood Mattie. I can still hear Mattie calling Linda's name in the hospital. It wasn't just "Linda." It was more like, "LIN....DAAAAAA!"
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jd1ngq7kgq9cx9f/-Rsp4fIXqI#lh:null-100_0889.MOV
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