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

July 8, 2020

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Tuesday, July 7, 2020 -- Mattie died 562 weeks ago today.
             
Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2009. Mattie was in the physical therapy outpatient clinic at the hospital working with Anna, his PT. The goal back then was to try to rehabilitate Mattie so that he could go back to school in the Fall of 2009. We were naive at that moment in time. Of course a month later, we learned that Mattie's cancer metastasized and therefore the notion of physical therapy, rehabilitation, and the hope for an illusive cure all came to an end. Nonetheless, despite the pain and exhaustion Mattie experienced each day, he tried his best to comply with what was asked of him.
Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins
  • number of people diagnosed with the virus: 2,993,760
  • number of people who died from the virus: 131,457 

It is midnight and we are finally back in Washington, DC. It has been a long day. Which started at 6am. It was difficult to leave my parents, as they need a lot of support on a daily basis. Of course without us there, my mom had a difficult day. I know what these days are like and I also know how challenging it is to caregive without hands on support. 

What am I posting a photo of? Try LAX! One of our country's busiest airports. In fact, I call this airport the zoo, because it can take 40 minutes to an hour just to drive into the airport. There is usually terrible traffic. If you don't allot 4 hours before your flight to get there, you typically won't make your flight. 

But thanks to COVID-19 (the only positive), traffic in LA is almost non-existent and the airport was like a ghost town. This was what we saw when we arrived at the airport today. No cars, and not a lot of people! That was glorious and less stressful! But that is where it ended because every seat on the plane was taken. 



This was our view of Los Angeles! If you look closely you can see the Queen Mary in the harbor. She is now a museum and hotel in Long Beach. 
The beauty of the clouds. I typically don't sleep on planes, but I am exhausted and spent more of the time asleep than awake. 

Flying into the Nation's capitol. 
We flew over Georgetown University. I will never forget this astroturf! I stared at it from Mattie's hospital room for months. I grew to hate it and everything it represented. To me the turf represented freedom and life without cancer. Both of which we did not have and I hated being reminded of this fact every time I looked out the window and saw healthy college students playing and living their every day lives. 

No comments: