Afterlives of the Rich and Famous

Posted by admin_akashic on Aug 13th, 2022 in Stories

Mattie Stepanek

The poet, the peacemaker, and the philosopher who played,” Matthew Joseph Thaddeus Stepanek was born on July 17, 1990, in Rockville, Maryland. His mother, Jeni, with a Ph.D. in early childhood special education, had four children before she was diagnosed with the adult form of dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic disease that took the lives of her daughter, Katie, at the age of two, her son Stevie at the age of six months, and her son Jamie at the age of three. One of the miracles of Mattie was that he survived the same disease until he was thirteen and accomplished more in those years than many of us manage in a lifetime.

On one hand, Mattie led the life of a normal boy, loving trips to the beach, reading, and the Korean martial art hapkido, in which he earned a black belt at the age of eight before he became reliant on a wheelchair, his service dog Micah, and a ventilator. On the other hand, when he was three years old, he began writing poetry. His extraordinary gifts as a writer and poet led to six books of poetry and a collection of peace essays, all of which reached the New York Times bestseller list, and one of which,
Just Peace, was awarded the Independent Publishing Gold Medal for “Peacemaker Book of the Year” in 2007, three years after Mattie’s death.

His poetry and his charmingly transcendent presence attracted the attention of Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. His frequent appearances on their respective talk shows led to his appointment as the Muscular Dystrophy Association National Goodwill Ambassador in 2002, at the age of twelve.

Mattie’s disease required that he be home-schooled, a situation that allowed his astonishing intellect to thrive. He was also hospitalized several times and had a near-death experience that only deepened his profound faith in God and led him to tell Larry King in a 2002 interview on Larry King Live, when asked if he was afraid of death, “I’m afraid of dying, but I’m not afraid of death.”

On June 22, 2004, at the Washington, D.C., Children’s National Medical Center, Mattie Stepanek left this earth and went Home. His funeral six days later was attended by more than a thousand people. Former president Jimmy Carter remembered in his eulogy Mattie’s life philosophy: “Remember to play after every storm.” Mattie’s mother, Jeni, continues her beloved child’s work as a motivational speaker, peace advocate, and inspiration.

From Francine

Mattie is a Mystical Traveler, such a rare, highly advanced spirit that he seems lit from within by his and God’s complete sacred commitment to each other. The crowd of spirits and animals who gathered to celebrate his Homecoming went on for as far as the eye could see. Like most Mystical Travelers, he incarnated on earth once and only once, and he stayed just long enough to reignite the spark of faith in an incalculable number of people and inspire his mother to continue his work before briefly returning to the Other Side. Then, after a private audience with the Council, he left again, into the stars and on to another planet as desperately in need of him as earth was.

This is not to imply that he and his mother are ever separate for any length of time. He is with her at every appearance, large or small, and he sits beside her on her bed every night until she falls asleep, adoring her and thanking her for the blessed lifetime she gave him, exactly the lifetime he knew she would give him when he chose her to deliver him to earth and be his best friend, companion, and caretaker in the brief time he was there.