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 29, 2021

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Tonight's picture was taken in July of 2005. That week, we took Mattie to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We did that three summers in a row. In 2005, that was our last year going to North Carolina together. I have no idea why, but life is funny that way. You get busy, or you think there is no time. I am glad we did make the time early on and that we captured these moments on camera. The house we rented that year had a lovely porch swing. A place Mattie and I liked to go in the afternoon when it was hot and humid!


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

  • Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 34,725,740
  • Number of people who died from the virus: 612,022


The floors are in the process of being stained! It is thrilling to see the color matching from room to room. Rather than each floor being a different color. The person working with us, Roberto, is fantastic. He really understands color, the complexities of different woods, and listening to his customer. 


Photo (left to right): Denise, Jocelyn, and Mattie


Below is a letter I received from Mattie's hospital social worker (Denise) after he died. Denise came into our lives the first week Mattie was diagnosed, as children with cancer get assigned a doctor, social worker, case manager, and typically have access to child life specialist. 

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Dear Peter and Vicki,

I have been trying to find the words to convey my sympathy and my heartbreak for the loss of your precious and very special son, Mattie. So many thoughts and memories have flooded my mind in the past two weeks, but I am still finding it difficult to express what I want to say. I realize as I sit here that the reason it is so difficult is because, I want to say something that will make it better, but there are no words that can do that. 

Instead, I will just try to share my feelings. My first remembrance of Mattie is receiving an e-mail about a family meeting to discuss a new case and the patient's name was Mattie Brown. When I first saw the name, my heart skipped a beat and I wondered why someone was sending me an e-mail about my grandmother, because she had died many years ago before I was even born. I think I have shared with you before that my paternal grandmother's name was Mattie Brown and that was my association with the name. I never got to know my grandmother, but I did become very acquainted with your Mattie and I am eternally thankful for that. 

Mattie was a very interesting child. I often marveled at the duality of his personality in that he was a wonderful, curious, creative, caring and energetic little boy and at the same time an insightful and wise "old soul." Mattie loved life and he enjoyed it thoroughly. He lived everyday fully, playing, inventing, creating, discovering, and engaging. He loved people, holding court, commanding an audience and directing the action. He had a sense of what he needed and how to get it, whether it was someone to play with, a creation to be developed, medication to ease his pain, or "quiet on the set."

I loved Mattie's creativity and artistry. He had inexhaustible imagination! He could take anything and make it something special. I love especially all of the cardboard box creations: haunted houses, elevators, and beaches. He could put a 1,000 piece puzzle together with ease, assemble any toy with just a blink at the directions and bring life to bugs, and flowers with his many scientific experiments that he enjoyed and his fascination with cockroaches is not to be forgotten. 

The seasons and holidays will not be the same without Mattie. Mattie loved both. His room was full of holiday and seasonal creations. I was in a store just last week and they had a Halloween display up and I thought of Mattie and how much he loved creating holiday decorations and decorating his hospital room. 

My favorite Mattie memory is his 7th birthday party in the child life playroom. Mattie's friends came to the hospital to celebrate his birthday. There was pizza and gifts and games and lots of staff there to celebrate Mattie. But, the highpoint of the day was when his friends arrived to celebrate his birthday. Mattie transformed from a boy with cancer with a leg in a cast and a wheelchair to just a boy. Enjoying his friends, enjoying his day! He was a gentleman and an excellent host. He was just a boy having fun, laughing, playing, eating pizza and doing the things children do. I loved and cherish that moment for him. 

Mattie did not have length of years, but he lived his life with purpose. He taught by example. He challenged us to be better at what we do, to expand beyond what we are.... to develop the fullest potential of what we are created to be. He left us with a prescription for living:

  1. Live your life with purpose.
  2. Live fully and cherish every day.
  3. Enjoy life's simplicities.
  4. Walk completely in the gifts and talents that you have been blessed with.
  5. Touch someone else's life. 
I realize that I have not talked much about my feelings. I am still numb. I have not missed a day since Mattie's death that I haven't said, "I wasn't prepared, I thought he had more time." I know that I miss him and I miss you all. 

You are both excellent parents. You loved Mattie completely and unconditionally. You left no stone unturned to get the best care available to him. You supported him and walked with him every step of the way. He trusted you implicitly and loved you completely. He was all that he was because of you. Mattie was your gift that you shared with the rest of us. 

Master Builder
Artistic and Creative
Talented
Tough
Insightful
Energetic

Boy
Roach Lover
Old Soul
Wise
Negotiator

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