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

May 2, 2014

Friday, May 2, 2014

Friday, May 2, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken on July 23, 2009. That was Mattie's one year anniversary of his cancer diagnosis. He was in clinic that day sandwiched between Peter and his buddy Brandon. In Brandon's hand was a boat they made. It was a summer of boat races within the clinic sink. If I am not mistaken, this was the day Peter remembers in which all of Jocelyn's sisters got together for the famous boat racing competition! I have now answered my own question about whether I was there or not! The beauty of the blog, or I should say, thank goodness for the Blog. Brandon and Jocelyn brought Mattie much happiness, as only good friends can do. 


Quote of the day: Memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. Kevin Arnold



Peter and I returned home to Washington, DC early this afternoon. Peter had to get back to work! I can't get over how much colder it was in Ohio in comparison to DC. I thought DC was grey and cold when we left on Wednesday, but Columbus gave me a reality check. The flight home was also bumpy and at one point we hit an air pocket and one of the flight attendants went flying to the floor, right next to my lap. I asked him if he was okay and he joked with a "hello, how are you?!" Glad he could laugh that off, because if I had his job, i would have found the closest seat and strapped myself in until the flight landed on the ground. Meanwhile the woman in front of me had some sort of spray bottle and every two minutes she was misting herself like a house plant. This mist had a minty smell, like a strong candy cane! Typically that isn't a bad smell, but in concentration every two minutes, it smelled toxic! Fortunately she had no one sitting directly next to her because my heart would have gone out to that person. I was behind her and I wanted to confiscate the spray bottle! Unfortunately for me, she was clever enough to keep this bottle within the TSA approved 3 ounce bottle size! I get the fact that we all have rituals that make us feel calm or safe within an airplane, but this one really took the cake! Her calmness, produced agitation in me every time she misted herself! I had Peter snap this photo of us landing in DC, to me the Potomac River looking like a pool of Chocolate!

While Peter and I were at the Columbus airport today we made two significant observations about our trip. Mind you we were only gone for two days. Columbus is unlike any city I have ever been to. I suppose I am used to cities on the East and West coasts. Basically large cities, but in addition to their size, their demeanor also comes into question. They are frenetic. People are everywhere, there is a level of busyness, a density, a congestion, a lack of peacefulness and personal space! I am not saying I like that, I am just saying I am conditioned to it! When you walk or look at the streets of Columbus, the first thing we as East coasters would say is, "where are ALL the people?" To us the streets look desolate even during the middle of a work day! But that is the thing!!! They aren't really desolate, there is just more SPACE! There isn't the same congestion, the same frenzy, and chaos. This same lovely pace carried over into the airport of ALL places! Can you believe this? In the Washington, DC area, and all major East coast cities, our airports are zoos! Packed with people. Not Columbus. The hallways and corridors are wide, people wait their turn and are courteous. It was a night and day difference. As soon as I stepped off the plane into Washington National airport, it was like walking into a sea of people, congestion as far as the eye could see. I enjoyed that aspect of Columbus a great deal and as I said to Peter, you have to leave DC to explore other states to see just how different our region of the Country is.

The other observation had nothing to do with Ohio, but with the Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology Educational Specialists (APHOES). APHOES is the organization that invited us to give a keynote address at their conference. We spent a good portion of the day yesterday with the executive leadership of the association, attended over 5 sessions, and was even invited out to dinner by many of the key players of the organization. That really meant a lot to us and also said a lot to me about how inclusive a group this is, after all, attending conferences is not something NEW to me. I have been doing this all my professional life and can size up groups and people very quickly. This group really was collaborative, embraced and supported what we are doing, and is inspired to find ways for us to work together. But here is the observation, the observation is at the core these professionals are all educators. I have been around educators all my life, since my mom was a teacher. Educators are professionals I probably most align with. Educators speak a certain language, they have multiple interests, can converse on multiple topics, are usually engaging, and if all else fails are passionate about who they are teaching and serving. This was most definitely the case with all of the individuals we interacted with yesterday and this kind of interaction can be very stimulating, as I know it was for both Peter and me. 

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