Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2005. Mattie was three years old and one of his favorite activities in the warmer weather months was using his sand box. I can't tell you how many items Mattie stored in that box. Toys, shovels, and vehicles. Now the sandbox sits outside our deck door. Kids in our complex use it and sure enough if you pop the lid, you will still see many of Mattie's things inside the box!
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.
- number of people who were diagnosed with the virus: 1,672,714
- number of people who died from the virus: 98,636
Here is another story from this year's virtual walk, that I would like to share. I received an email from someone I do not know on the day of the event! She had never supported our Foundation before this year. But she learned about our event through her local neighborhood listserv. It turns out that her son has brain cancer, is in active treatment, and he is about five years old.
Since the pandemic, this little boy and his family have remained home. They rescheduled even some of his treatments in fear of his susceptibility to the virus. Yet on May 17th, this little fellow, his siblings, and parents all got outside to walk together as a family. The mom wanted me to know that her son was eager to walk, seemed to have more energy than every before, and the virtual event gave the family something productive and fun to do altogether.
In fact, the mom said she experienced her own "MIRACLE" that day, when she saw her son outside, doing normal things, and watching the family bond over something other than illness and cancer. Hearing that our Walk provided her the opportunity to see this "miracle," made my day. As I remember exactly the feelings and sentiments she was expressing! The story remains with me now over a week later, and this mom and I agreed to keep in touch, with the hopes that when the pandemic is behind us, we can meet in person.
Though our Walks are not typically geared to the cancer community (as I strongly believe in raising money from the non-cancer community to help those with cancer), I was deeply touched that this family living with childhood cancer would want to participate. I would never have guessed that our Walk could be a psychosocial intervention, but that was indeed what happened for this little guy and his family.
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