Mom’s book honors boy who fought disease, sought peace
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
From the Baltimore Sun, Good Morning America, Fox News and elsewhere:
Mattie Stepanek was a boy with muscular dystrophy who wrote six best-selling books and inspired millions with his messages of hope and peace. He died five years ago just short of his fourteenth birthday.
Now his mother Jeni Stepanek, 50, has written a book about her son. “Messenger” tells the story of an ordinary boy who made extraordinary choices that led to meetings with celebrities and world leaders. Jeni Stepanek, who also has muscular dystrophy, says Mattie’s messages of peace did not end with his death. An excerpt of the book is here.
ABC’s segment included a reading of some of Mattie’s poems, including this one.
A New Hope
I need a hope … a new hope.
A hope that reaches for the stars, and
That does not end in violence or war.
A hope that makes peace on our earth, and
That does not create evil in the world.
A hope that finds cures for all diseases, and
That does not make people hurt.
In their bodies, in their hearts
Or most of all, in their spirits.
I need a hope … a new hope.
A hope that inspires me to live, and
To make all these things happen
So that the whole world can have
A new hope, too.

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