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

June 28, 2019

Friday, June 28, 2019

Friday, June 28, 2019

Tonight's picture was taken in March of 2009. Literally 6 months before Mattie died. At that moment in time, we really thought treatment was coming to an end and soon we would be able to focus on physical therapy to retrain Mattie how to walk. Of course that never happened. 

That day in March, Mattie wanted to play outside in his sandbox. So Peter brought a heater outside and we bundled Mattie up. What you may not realize is that Mattie was unable to walk to the sandbox. So we lifted him into the box. Mattie loved his frog sandbox, and this box remains outside our deck door for other children to play with in our complex. 


Quote of the day: Common knowledge might be shared by many people, but there is no knowledge that dangles unattached to any subject. Unlike water or gold, knowledge always belongs to someone. ~ Jennifer Nagel


Knowledge always belongs to someone! It's an interesting quote. I think at times we assume things about people around us, never realizing what knowledge they actually possess. For example, I was doing laundry today in our complex, and had the opportunity to talk on a deeper level with one of my neighbors. On an aside, my joke is that laundry is an event, not just a task! It's an event because we have to leave our townhouse, go outside, and enter into our building. From there we take an elevator to our laundry room, which is three floors below where we live. Doing laundry was far more humorous when Mattie was alive. As children have a way of generating dirty clothes, and I had to figure out a way to balance the clothes, the detergent, and a baby in tow. We made it work!

However, while in the laundry room today, I met one of my neighbors. I knew her already, as she has a wonderful daily walking routine which causes her to pass my townhouse. We have chatted before, but not as extensively as we did today over laundry. We were talking about family. She told me about hers and then of course she asked about mine. Since she talked about her children, I felt compelled to tell her about Mattie. Mind you she sees a frog sandbox outside our deck door, but she has never seen me outside with a child in it. Today, I helped her put two and two together. She was absolutely STUNNED that I had a child die from cancer. I assume everyone around me knows this information. Just like Hester Prynne in the book, The Scarlet Letter, wore a red letter to signal to others her adulterous affair, I feel like I have a symbol over my head that everyone around me sees that announces...... I LOST A CHILD TO CANCER. 

My neighbor appeared absolutely heart broken! She gave me many hugs and then said to me that whatever issues and problems she has had in her life, pale in comparison to what I face. Personally I feel child loss is a nightmare, but at the same time, I don't want to discount the NUMEROUS other hurts, pains, traumas, and events in other people's lives. What is particularly noteworthy is that this year marks the 10th anniversary of Mattie's death. For a decade I have been coping with this loss and yet regardless of time, we still have a story to tell. A story which continues to impact our day to day lives and of course our future. Somehow my neighbor understood that without me have to connect the dots for her, which was refreshing. 

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