Monday, August 11, 2025

Monday, August 11, 2025

Tonight's picture was taken on August 9, 2009. This was a very special evening for Mattie. His child life specialist, Linda, arranged for the Lego Store, at our local mall, to host a building session with two master builders and Mattie. This session occurred after hours, so there was NO ONE else in the store! Imagine a child who LOVED Legos having the chance to be alone in the store with two master builders (guys who design, build, and maintain large-scale Lego models, often for attractions like Legoland or Discovery Centers). It was like a dream come true! When the guys told Mattie he could pick any kit in the store and they would build it together...... he couldn't pick one! Why? Because that year EVERY kit was purchased for Mattie, and there was nothing in the store he could build! Pause, think about that! That was how many hours we spent building with Legos in one year! Legos were our therapy, and working on those bricks were a positive diversion from focusing on the cancer treatment! In any case, Mattie decided he wanted to design a NYC yellow taxi with the guys! Mattie's first encounter with a NYC taxi was in September of 2008, when we went to New York to consult another medical team. Mattie loved the whole yellow taxi experience and now to this day, this yellow taxi sits behind me in my office! It is a memorial piece, and part of Mattie's legacy. 

Quote of the day: Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless. ~ Mother Teresa

If you read yesterday's blog, then you know I had a very difficult Sunday. Given that I had to give my dad laxatives to manage his issue yesterday, today, I paid the consequence for that action. I will spare you the details, because you have to have a strong constitution, but when I tell you there was a mess in bed, all over pillows, and then in the shower, I am not kidding. It was an exhausting way to start my morning! No matter how much time I allot in the morning, it is never enough. 

While we were having breakfast, I received a text message from a man named, Matt. Matt is my service representative at Ford. Last Tuesday, I had my car serviced. I do it every six months, religiously! First I want to protect the life of the car and second, I want to make sure what we are driving is safe. Ford is super helpful to me, because they pick up my car at home and also drop it off when they are done, and this service is free! I can't tell you as a caregiver what a huge difference this makes to my life.

Any case, when my car was dropped back home to me last Tuesday, I noticed that my dashboard didn't look right. Something was missing! Keep in mind that last Tuesday was a nightmare in my house. I had Cody, the plumber, over, I had Semper Dry over assessing the water damage, and a host of other things. Therefore I did not have much time to focus on the car.

Within a day, I put two and two together! What was missing was this orange plastic lizard. You maybe saying... so what! Get another lizard! Well this lizard belonged to Mattie. In fact, Mattie kept this lizard in my husband's car and a green lizard in my former car. When we bought the car I am currently driving in 2016, I placed both the orange and green lizard on my dashboard. Also on my rearview mirror I have a beautiful plastic tulip that Mattie made for me. These are my three tributes inside the car to Mattie. So when one of the lizards went missing (and believe me I tore the car apart looking for it), I got upset. 

Last Wednesday, I wrote to Matt. I asked him whether he or anyone at Ford found an orange plastic lizard. The service people at Ford are busy! He could of said to me.... lady I have no time to look for a plastic lizard, or he could have simply said NO there was no lizard found. But that is not what he said. Matt looked all over the service area for the lizard and when he couldn't find it, he offered to buy Mattie another one. That is when I told him the story! Matt said he was so sorry to hear of Mattie's loss and I thought we put the lizard conversation to bed! But that wasn't the case. Matt continued to search the property for Mattie's lizard! He was passing his colleague's desk on Friday and on Kailee's desk, he noticed an orange lizard. She wasn't at work on Friday, so he waited until today to ask her about it. She told him that one of the car porters found the lizard and brought it to her. Funny story, Kailee is the unofficial lost and found in the service department. She has a drawer filled with all sorts of found goodies! Any case, Matt told her the story of Mattie and the lizard and this led to a text message to me this morning. Matt said.... good news.... we found the lizard. So after dropping my dad off at his memory care center, I went to Ford to pick up the orange lizard and to personally thank Matt for caring and being persistent. His act of kindness means more to me than he will ever know, and he and Kailee today made me see that yes there are kind and trustworthy people in the world. People who do things without an ulterior motive.  

This is the other side of my dashboard, with the green lizard! Now my dashboard looks back to normal! If you know anything about me now, then you know that I read into the orange lizard disappearing. Remember this lizard was in my husband's car at one time. So with this orange lizard disappearing, I took this as some sort of sign in the universe about what happened to my marriage. Yet unexpectedly this lizard came back, which to me is Mattie telling me he is seeing everything, knows everything that has gone on, and also knows that we were a loving family. 

This whole lizard story today has touched my heart. Then of course, as my life has it, nothing ever goes smoothly. I had wi-fi go out in the house and had to figure that out! Which in my house is a major crisis, and what I despise about the house, is everything seems to require wi-fi to function. Once I figured all of that out, I decided to help my mom with her hair this evening. On Thursday, it is my parent's 65th wedding anniversary. I am taking them out and I wanted my mom to feel good about herself. Washing and styling hair is NOT new to me. I have been doing this to friends since I was a kid!

Tonight, right before bringing my dad upstairs to bed, he had another bathroom accident. The whole thing got to me, so I am drinking ginger ale and typing this, but guess who sent me another sign tonight... yes my Mattie. While washing my hands at the kitchen sink, look what was staring right back at me at 10:30pm.... a beautiful grasshopper! INDEED a Mattie sign!!!