Tonight's picture was taken in September of 2006. Back then childhood cancer was the furthest thing from our minds! That weekend we took Mattie to Scott's Run! This was another great nature park that we visited on a regular basis. Of course, at some point in every trip, Mattie landed up on Peter's shoulders. Mattie gravitated to being up high, and we learned this when he was a baby. Mattie hated his strollers and did not like front carriers! The only thing that was a guarantee was sitting in a back pack with Peter. Our weekends were always filled with some sort of outside adventure. Regardless of the weather or season.
Quote of the day: The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
As the webinar that I am participating in on Friday is fast approaching, I have been giving a lot of thought to Mattie's legacy. So many times when we think about legacy, we visualize someone who is dying passing something down to those of us left behind. But is that really the only way a legacy is built? Based on a dying person's wishes and thoughts!? In our case, the answer is NO! There are many reasons why it is hard for families to capture a loved one's dying wishes at end of life. Some of it maybe timing. Some of it maybe these conversations are too hard, or in our case, the dying person was a young child.
I think Peter and I both agree that Mattie's legacy was built on our life story together. Thankfully Mattie's life was always captured through photography! I can't tell you how these photos have helped to lay the groundwork and road map to Mattie's legacy. Whenever I look at Mattie in the hospital or in the out-patient clinic, he was typically busy with a project. Art and creativity were his therapy. This was when he was the most happy! We have taken that life lesson to heart when creating Mattie Miracle. As the Foundation focuses solely on the meeting the emotional and social needs of children with cancer.
It was through Mattie's cancer journey that I learned you can indeed have HOPE even while helping someone die. I would never have realized that before. Being Mattie's parent and advocating for a death with dignity, was where the hope lied. It was a task, a focus, and something we united around to tried to achieve. After all, it was devastating coming off of active treatment. That was a huge loss, as we had to accept there was no cure. But we did not have time to process this loss, because we had to quickly manage the next phase of Mattie's journey. As one of Mattie's nurses used to say.... "THERE IS NOTHING NATURAL ABOUT DYING." In Mattie's case that was 100% correct!
No comments:
Post a Comment