Mattie's Blog and his Fight Against Osteosarcoma

Thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive!

Dear Mattie Blog Readers,

It means a great deal to me that you take the time to write and to share your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on Mattie's battle and death. Your messages are very meaningful and help support me through very challenging times. I am 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 have stopped writing on September 9, 2010. However, like my journey with grief there is so much that 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 me, and most importantly thank you for keeping Mattie's memory alive.

As Mattie would say, Ooga Booga (meaning, I LOVE YOU)! Vicki

March 8, 2021

Monday, March 8, 2021

Monday, March 8, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken on March 5, 2009. I remember that day as if it were yesterday. Several United Airlines employees came to the outpatient clinic to visit with the children and give them teddy bears. Mattie was eager to meet them and appreciated the bear and the airline wings he received. You would be surprised how such a visit perked all of us up and made us feel like we were less alone. It brightened our day and that feeling carried us throughout a difficult admission day to the inpatient unit.

Quote of the day: Today's coronavirus update from Johns Hopkins.

Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 29,033,369
Number of people who died from the virus: 525,619

On February 9, Peter and I were interviewed by Mark Levine for his Help and Hope Happen Here podcast. Mark's podcast is designed to bring public awareness to childhood cancer. He does this by interviewing all the stakeholders of childhood cancer, such as doctors, nurses, psycho-oncologists, child life specialists, advocates, and non-profit leaders.

I have to admit that Peter and I have been interviewed by others in the past, and the final product was lackluster. I say this because in these other interviews the story of Mattie and the vision and mission of Mattie Miracle were not well developed and highlighted. Mark's interview of us was beautiful. He did his homework, and thoroughly read our website! He came to our interview with meaningful questions and his one hour interview takes his listener on our cancer journey and development as a Foundation. I am very grateful for Mark's professionalism, for understanding our tagline that IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT THE MEDICINE, and for giving us this opportunity to spread our psychosocial message to the public.

To me the interview that Mark created is a gift to Mattie Miracle, because it is wonderful to see our work through another advocate's eyes. Mark was able to highlight our 11 years with the Foundation into one hour and if you didn't know who Mattie Miracle before this interview, you will definitely know what we are about and what motivates us after listening.