Jamie survived until three and a half before passing away peacefully in his sleep. Mattie was two when Jamie died, and a school psychologist suggested to Jeni that she put away Jamie’s belongings so that Mattie could ‘forget and grow up without the memory’. It was the worst possible advice. Within two months, Jeni recalls, ‘my loving child was banging his head against the wall, screaming and tearing pages out of books’. To help assuage his anger, she took out a pen and paper with him and wrote ‘The Story of a Very Special Brother’. They talked about Jamie and what it was like to feel sad after he died. Jeni collected Mattie’s thoughts and pasted them into a book, ‘and those were his beginnings as a writer as he learned about the value of getting on to the page what was in his heart’. Let this truly be The celebration of A New Year… Let us remember The past, yet Not dwell in it. Let us fully use The present, yet Not waste it. Let us live for The future, yet Not count on it Written by Mattie, aged 11
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 04:55:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015