White Bear Visits Mattie's Park Dedication
On Saturday, October 18th, 2008, exactly 13 months after Connor went to heaven, Scott, Deb & White Bear traveled to Rockville, MD to be part of a very special park dedication, Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park. Mattie was a wonderful inspiration to everyone who knew him, thousands around the world who only knew him through his books and television appearances, and best of all Mattie was his Mom, Jeni's, best friend and amazing son! Mattie was a poet, peace-maker and a fantastic young boy. He had a rare type of Mitochondrial disease, that took his life at almost 14 years old in 2004. His legacy lives on through his innocent, yet extremely profound poetry.
Connor loved Mattie, finding in him, another boy who had many of the same medical "accessories" yet had a wonderful voice. He heard in Mattie's poetry so much of what his heart felt, yet his voice could not yet say. Mattie gave words to many children's hearts. Thank you Mattie.
The park dedication was beautiful in so many ways. The weather was cool, but the sun warmed the day nicely. It is a huge park with 26+ acres of land! There are accessible playgrounds, tennis courts, football fields, eating areas, walking paths, benches, a dog park, an accessible "bankshots" play area, and a fantastic peace garden. In the peace garden, there are bricks commemorating many people. In this area Jeni, Mattie's Mom, placed a brick in Connor's memory. You will see this in the slide show below. This is of course very close to our hearts.
Many celebrities came to honor this special day including town, county and state officials, many from the media and even Billy Gilman, and the biggest surprise was Oprah Winfrey!
Mattie's Mom Jeni made an amazing speech which brought everyone to tears. We were so thankful for the opportunity to meet her in person after so many hours of emails and phone conversations. We hope you enjoy the slideshow of this special day. God bless Jeni!
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5 comments:
WOW! I feel like through you Connor is one of the greatest teachers and guides I've ever had...right as I was sending an email about faith and being grateful no matter how challenging things seem to be, here is your message affrirming just that. Through the ongoing love of parents like both of you and Jeni Stepanek, I see God's grace and understand for the very first time perhaps that we are all connected--that my child is yours, and yours is mine and even when they are not here on this earth they are still with us in a very real way. This is just amazing--in these photos it's like this park itself is laughing...thank you Connor and Mattie for making my day!!! Michele (Danson's mom)
I remember Mattie, saw him many times on the oprah show...so glad you could be there for it...and white bear gets to go lots of places, more than me LOL
joan & hannah
Hi Deb and Scott
How moving! What wonderful pictures and what a wonderful park! I loved the basketball court with all of the nets being set at different heights to accomodate all, even those in wheelchairs or those who don't have the strength to throw so high! How beautiful that White Bear got to sit with Mattie's statue. It made me think of Connor sitting with Mattie. I saw Oprah's show a few years ago with Mattie and I remembered I cried at his amazing courage! I didn't realize he too had a mitochondrial disease. God bless you both. I am sure that although the weekend was bittersweet, it was helpful in the mourning process.
Dianne
Highly recommend a trip to Mattie's park and Connor's brick. It is a beautiful design.
Hi there, thanks for sharing your story. We have lots in similar and face the same challenges. Hello from the UK and good luck.
Annette, Neil and Sophie. xxx
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