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

December 26, 2014

Friday, December 26, 2014

Friday, December 26, 2014

Tonight's picture was taken in December of 2002. Mattie was 8 months old. Being that it was his first Christmas, he had no idea what was going on but it was clear that he was fascinated by the tree and the lights! 
Of course for us, just like any parent, we always thought we would have many Christmases together. 



We are all safely in Fort Lauderdale tonight. Unfortunately though warm, it was grey and raining the whole day! Despite that, we made the best of the afternoon. We had a late lunch at the Chart House, which is right on the Intercoastal. It is a beautiful setting and filled with wonderful memories for us. I did not take this photo, I downloaded it from the Internet, since today's weather was grey, overcast, and raining! To give you a feeling for what it looks like in better weather, I downloaded a prettier photo! When we used to visit Fort Lauderdale when Mattie was a toddler and preschooler, we would take him to this exact restaurant. Mattie loved it because there were always boats passing by and lots of bird traffic! So of course none of us could be there without pausing to reflect on Mattie and his presence with us. 

In fact, THOUGH WE SAW NO SYMBOLS OF MATTIE IN OUR LIFE on Christmas day, we saw plenty today!!! It started with pennies on the ground at the airport!!! Mattie loved pennies! My parents started a tradition with Mattie of collecting pennies. Pennies left by the "Penny Fairy." However, I would have to say that Mattie was stellar in general with finding MONEY! In fact he was known to dive behind store clerk's in the grocery store to retrieve unclaimed change on the floor of the store! But it wasn't only change, he was good at finding dollar bills and even a $5 bill on occasion!!! So when we saw change on the ground of the airport, we took that as signs from Mattie! Which I felt good about, because I felt like we did not not visually connect yesterday. 

After we ate tonight, my mom snapped a photo of Peter and me!




















Peter snapped a photo of my mom and me!















Our evening ended with one of the drawbridges over the Intercoastal going up to let a boat through. Therefore when this happens, ALL traffic stops. To me this was also another Mattie sign! Mattie LOVED these drawbridges! In fact when we stayed in Fort Lauderdale years ago, we would walk up to these bridges on the bottom of the hour, to catch one of them going up! Mattie wanted to watch the process, he loved to see the cars stop, the bridge go up mechanically, boats go through, and then the bridge go back down again! Of course years later, though Mattie is no longer alive or with us, the thrill of seeing these bridges remains alive within me. Mattie shared that passion with me, I am sharing that memory with you, and maybe the next time you see a drawbridge... you too will think of Mattie!

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