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

January 15, 2022

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Saturday, January 15, 2022

Tonight's picture was taken in January of 2009. Mattie was home between hospital visits and that day friends dropped off several gifts for Mattie. You will notice that Mattie had several military patches sitting on top of his pajamas. These were given to Mattie by one of my former students. She is a Lt Colonel in the Air Force. She and her friends collected them as a gift for Mattie. In addition, a friend of ours knew the Dairy Godmother in Del Ray, Virginia. The Dairy Godmother herself sent along a special magic wand for Mattie and of course some ice cream! Honestly we were going through hell, and yet Team Mattie made us feel like we were a VERY VERY LUCKY family!


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

  • Number of people diagnosed with the virus: 65,358,248
  • Number of people who died from the virus: 849,975


After I got my dad up, washed, dressed, had breakfast, and did his exercises, I went out with Peter to get our COVID boosters. Our actual vaccines were received in Washington, DC by a facility run by the MedStar Hospital system. Now that we live in Virginia, I had to figure out where to get a booster. I signed up for the booster through the pharmacy system at the Giant grocery chain. I wasn't sure how it was going to go today, but the pharmacist was lovely, gave us the shots, and he was so gentle, I did not feel a thing. It was remarkable. He asked us to remain in the store for 15 minutes post shot to make sure we did not have a negative reaction. 

So we took that 15 minutes to walk around the store. I made a b-line to the meat section to look for chicken. As the other grocery stores I have been to, the chicken counters are completely empty. To my good fortune, this store had some chicken, and I bought several packages to freeze for later use. 

Peter and I were away from home for about 90 minutes and it was a very welcomed break from my usual routine. It also gave Peter and I a chance to focus on each other, listen and converse. It felt refreshing. 

I am scared to get a reaction from this booster, so I am taking Tylenol around the clock. I talked to the pharmacist about this and he said it was fine, given that I did this after my first two shots. The only thing I feel right now is exhaustion. But it is hard to know if this is caused from my daily routine or the shot itself. I am going with my daily routine, managing two moves, and house renovations. 

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