Tonight's picture was taken on October 20, 2007. It was a Fall Festival held at Mattie's school. Though Mattie had just started that school in September of 2007, by October, he had many friends. Ironically the families of these children (Bethie, Kazu, Campbell, and Livi) in the photo are still part of our lives today and help us raise funds for Mattie Miracle. I honestly thought we would have MANY more Fall Festivals like this to attend. Ironically, the next time we came back to this very field was two years later.....for the Mattie March in 2009. By that point Mattie had cancer and his support community held a March in his honor.
Quote of the day: The language of friendship is not words but meanings. ~ Henry David Thoreau
It never dawned on me today that it is October 20th, which means that Mattie's school is having its Fall Festival. I took Sunny to Alexandria to walk, as he loves the neighborhoods and beautiful school campuses. However, as soon as I walked passed Mattie's school, it all came back to me. The photo you see above is what I am talking about. Though the school was all set up for 2019 Fall Festival, all I could think about was the first and last Fall Festival we attended in 2007. Which then led to a whole lot of negative thinking on my part about how unfair life is and that others around me can't possibly get it!
While watching the kids on the field running around and having a good time, with parents in tow, I just observed. I witnessed many checked out parents, with noses in their cell phones. Not that anything is wrong with that per se, other than I would say they are living their life as if this is just another task with their child. One task out of many, implying that there will be MANY MANY Fall Festivals to come. That seems like a natural deduction, as most children do not get gravely ill and die. But of course mine did, and I am happy to say that while he was alive, I was present in his life. Not glued to my phone thankfully, because right about now I would feel very guilty. Guilty that I had the time to make memories and I DIDN'T!
Meanwhile, as I was walking, I saw my friend Christine drive by. Her two children are in the photo above. As soon as she saw me, she pulled the car over to talk with me. Ironically we both recanted the Fall Festival of 2007! As our boys united us together and we too became close friends. Before Mattie got sick, the president of the parent teacher association at Mattie's school contacted me. Rich wanted me to serve as the parliamentarian for the association and to also plan and coordinate the school's Fall Festival in 2008. Given that I knew the president well, I agreed to both requests. However, in July of 2008, before the school year started, Mattie was diagnosed with cancer. So I had to contact Rich and alert him. I remember him asking me if I knew of someone who could take over my role of planning the Fall Festival. My answer was Christine! Christine and I joke about this all the time, and today I reflected with her upon the fact that we never realized three years after the photo above was taken, that we would be working together on this field again. Not for the Fall Festival, but for the FIRST MATTIE MIRACLE WALK. Funny how an event can trigger a volume of memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment