Death
Mattie Stepanek died at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, June 22, 2004, three weeks before his 14th birthday. His funeral was held on June 28, 2004, at Saint Catherine Laboure Roman Catholic Church in Wheaton, Maryland. Nearly 1,350 people attended, including Oprah Winfrey and country singer Billy Gilman. A eulogy was delivered by former President Jimmy Carter, who said
We have known kings and queens, and we've known presidents and prime ministers, but the most extraordinary person whom I have ever known in my life is Mattie Stepanek. His life philosophy was 'Remember to play after every storm!' and his motto was: 'Think Gently, Speak Gently, Live Gently'. He wanted to be remembered as "a poet, a peacemaker, and a philosopher who played".
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Famous quotes containing the word death:
“But the life of Spirit is not the life that shrinks from death and keeps itself untouched by devastation, but rather the life that endures it and maintains itself in it. It wins its truth only when, in utter dismemberment, it finds itself.... Spirit is this power only by looking the negative in the face, and tarrying with it. This tarrying with the negative is the magical power that converts it into being. This power is identical with what we earlier called the Subject.”
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“There is a strange charm in the thoughts of a good legacy, or the hopes of an estate, which wondrously removes or at least alleviates the sorrow that men would otherwise feel for the death of friends.”
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“Because you live, O Christ,
the spirit bird of hope is freed for flying,
our cages of despair no longer keep us closed and life-denying.
The stone has rolled away and death cannot imprison!
O sing this Easter Day, for Jesus Christ has risen!”
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