Mattie with friends
Mattie with Jerry Lewis
Posted on 10/08/2005 3:15:12 AM PDT by Czech_Occidentalist
Aired October 1, 2005 - 21:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, Jeni Stepanek -- her unforgettable, inspirational son Mattie Stepanek, the best-selling poet and peacemaker, died in her arms last year before he could even turn 14. She's keeping his legacy alive. Plus, gorgeous exercise guru Denise Austin says you can eat carbs and lose weight. All that and lots more, next on LARRY KING LIVE.
(BEGIN INTERVIEW)
Great pleasure to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE a good friend, great lady -- Jeni Stepanek, she's the mom of the late Mattie J.T. Stepanek, the bestselling poet, peace activist, who died in June of 2004 at age 13. Mattie's sixth and final volume of "Heartsongs" poetry has just been published: "Reflections of a Peacemaker: A Portrait Through Heartsongs."
There you see its cover, there you see that wonderful picture of that wonderful young man, who appeared many times on this program. I'm in the book, Oprah Winfrey did the foreword. Mattie gets tributed every year -- he's appeared many times on the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon.
What was the ending like with you and Mattie?
JENI STEPANEK, MOTHER OF MATTIE: It was very tragic. He suffered greatly his last three months of life.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Mattie Stepanek deserves better. He loved people so much that he wanted them all to live in peace. Of course, he terribly underestimated the power of evil in man. He loved so much that he couldn`t comprehend that there could be anyone without at least a little bit of love. Even his last words were the words of love as you can read in the transcript of the interview.
Take into consideration that he was only a child. He was very intelligent. He was very pro-life. Well, of course, I haven`t found any text on the internet where he talks about abortion, but he always talked about how we must cherish life. And his mom could have aborted him, but she didn`t. I hope, I believe that if he had been allowed to grow up, he would have found out that the socialist left is all about death – abortion, euthanasia etc. And the socialist left can`t find any positive aspect of human suffering – the very thing Mattie was going through all his life. The socialist left has no use for people like him. The socialist left wants to get rid of them.
The above mentioned thing makes me wonder whether disabled people are active in the pro-life movement, because they are the first target.
Mattie was incredibly brave. The proof is the way he coped with his dying. It was worse than most of us can imagine. I`ve read another interview with Jeni in which she said more details.
If you want to learn more about Mattie, please read the compilation I made which can be found here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1158282/posts?page=63#63
You participated in a thread about Mattie Stepanek when he died last year. I think you might be interested in this. And as I am new here and rarely post, I don`t know if it`s OK to post to so many people at the same time. If not, please, forgive me.
Does anyone know any Freeper with medical experience who could answer this question: What is the likelihood of surviving a cardiac arrest lasting 45 minutes? Especially when someone is physically weak because he suffers from mitochondrial myopathy.Personally, I find this close to miracle.
I will have to leave the computer in a few minutes, because I`m in a library and the library closes. I`m from the Czech Republic, so don`t be surprised. If you have any questions about Mattie, ask them. I will reply on Monday.
Wasn't his 'idol' Jimmy Carter?
Thanks for the ping, comments, reminder.
Thanks so much for the update. I'm the parent of an only child. I can imagine the devastation of losing my son which terrifies me on a daily basis. So, taking the profile of two mothers who have lost their sons--Jeni Stepanek and Cindy Sheehan--Jeni is honoring her child and his beliefs and memory, while Cindy isn't so gracious, considering that their children were at different stages of life, ages and background.
Yes, he was. As I have already mentioned above, Mattie loved people so much that he wanted them to live in peace.
He probably didn`t realize that you simply can`t negotiate with a certain category of people, such as Osama bin Laden, Arafat, all other jihadists etc. When asked what we shoud do about bad people, he answered that we should pray and talk to them.
I really believe that he was convinced that there is a little bit of good in each of us, and it is everyone`s resposibility to try to help the bad people find it.
Of course, I believe that Jimmy Carter doesn`t want the best for the United States or Jimmy Carter`s idea of the best is completely different from ours.Mattie Stepanek simply thought that Jimmy Carter`s approach to peace negotiations would work.
I don`t know whether Mattie read any books written by conservative authors. He is said to have read thousands of books in his short life, but we don`t know which ones.
I have also mentioned above that Mattie was pro-life. Maybe he would have reconsidered his views, had he been allowed to grow up. Who knows?
When parents lose their child, it`s always terrible. It was even worse for Jeni. She lost all four of her children. And the way she lost Mattie was more than horrifying.
As you have probably read the article, you know that Mattie had a 45-minute cardiac arrest in March 2004. He was in critical condition for about two months after that. In May he woke up. He was very weak, but his condition slowly improved. His mind was as strong as ever. Everything looked hopeful.
At the beginning of June, however, Mattie contracted some really bad infection. This infection completely destroyed his body. Something went wrong in the part of the brain that directs the muscles. Mattie`s muscles contracted violently and his body became contorted. His nails fell off. He almost couldn`t breathe despite being on ventilator because his muscles pushed against his lungs. Jeni has even said that his bones were breaking.
You could say to yourself: That`s why we have painkillers.
But the doctors couldn`t give Mattie painkillers. He was so weak that the painkillers would have killed him almost instantly. Giving him painkillers would have been a kind of euthanasia. So Mattie had to bear this incredible pain all by himself.
In this situation Jeni wasn`t prepared to let his son go. Some people may consider it selfish, but which parent is ready to let his/her child go? And so Jeni asked Mattie to stay for her. Mattie as an obedient and loving son couldn`t say no. In another interview Jeni has said that it was clear that Mattie was ready. It was Mattie`s incredible love and iron will that made him stay.
Finally Jeni realized that making her son suffer didn`t make any sense. She gave him a permission to die. In ten minutes Mattie died.
Correction: In this situation Jeni wasn`t prepared to let her son go.
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