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

September 12, 2015

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Tonight's picture was taken on September 2008. This was before any of Mattie's surgeries as you can see he was freely using his right arm. Mattie was in the hospital's outpatient clinic and doing what he loved.... creating and designing with clay. Mattie was forming a boat and inside the boat he put stick people. Mattie could create at that table for hours, as long as he was given the freedom to design from within. If someone else tried to direct his art or tell him what to do, that wouldn't have work out! Fortunately Mattie had Jenny and Jessie (his art therapists) who believed and valued this freedom of expression and realized through this freedom Mattie was then able to build trust and rapport with them and communicate about his feelings with them. 


Quote of the day: When one loses a child, is it really ever over? ~ From Downtown Abbey



This week, Peter and I received this beautiful tribute collage through Facebook. It was designed by Timothy Beck. Tim lives in Phoenix and devotes his creativity to bringing happiness to families whose children have cancer. Tim designs these tributes on his own accord and then sends them to families. He has created hundreds of them and they are very much appreciated by families. I know we loved seeing it this week, on Mattie's anniversary. Tim selected the photos on his own accord from Mattie's blog and then designed this composition. Here is some information on Tim that he posted on Facebook:

If I have ever created anything for your child, the seed for its creation was officially planted on this day, 6 years ago. From August 3rd, 2009 to December 15th, 2010, I spent Monday evening in the oncology playroom of Phoenix Children's Hospital.
Because it was the last volunteer shift of the day, quite often only a handful of children would be in there; which in turn provided a more intimate experience. I made gem bracelets with the girls; played computer games with the boys; built a virtual zoo for the little ones; among other things; all while dancing around IV poles, drip lines, and electrical cords.
To say it was life changing would be a huge understatement. As a result, I cannot allow my integrity to be put into question. The unfortunate position of having to defend it has been and will continue to be vigorously refuted. Luckily these incidents have been few and far between.
With all of that said, I want each of you to know that my passion and heartache is neither feigned nor exaggerated. As I have said before, this isn't a hobby or a stepping stone to something bigger. It is exactly as you see it. And although my pain is not your pain, it is nonetheless every bit as genuine.


This evening Peter and I took a walk to the Kennedy Center. By day I have terrible noise of construction on my deck and by the evening hours, we have horrible noise coming from the Kennedy Center. This is the first year they have held an outdoor event like this, which has been going on for over a week. The event features skateboards. It reminds of something I would see by the beach. Basically skateboarders are skating up and down ramps, to live music. Music that is enough to make you want to put on ear plugs. The event is free and people sit in stands to watch the skateboarding and to hear the music. 

This event draws a lot of people, and I was stunned to see people standing in line today to get into this event. The event is free, but to me it generates noise pollution for its neighbors. During the week, the event runs until 9pm and on the weekends this sound continues to 10pm. I have had a full week of intense noise starting at 7:30am with drilling and construction until 9pm, when the Kennedy Center finally goes dark and shuts down the skateboarding event. 

By day it was grey and raining, yet by tonight we were treated to a Mattie Miracle sky. The sun was reflecting brilliantly on the Potomac River. 
















1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I come to your blog from time to time. It reminds me how fragile we are and how strong we can become. Your story brings me to tears each time I read your blog and to see how strong both of your are. What a beautiful child.

Your family is in my prayer.