Only child of Susan Bunting Bianchi and Edward Armond Bianchi. He was born with partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, cerebellar hypoplasia and a seizure disorder. Born at Polyclinic Hospital, Harrisburg, PA, about 1 pm on a snowy Thursday. He was delivered by Paul Fairbrother, MD. His father was in the delivery room and carried him to the newborn nursery.
Baptized at Zion Lutheran Church, Hummelstown, PA, 5/25/1986, Trinity Sunday, by Pastor Gerhard Dietrich, who visited us in the hospital when Matthew was born. Received first communion at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Hershey, PA, 2/25/1996, 1st Sunday in Lent, from Pastor Patricia Johnson, who helped prepare Matthew to take communion.
Confirmed by Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at the ELCA Youth Gathering, Alamo Dome, San Antonio, TX, 7/16/2006 . We attended with the youth group from Holy Trinity Lutheran, led by Pastor Cindy Brommer.
Graduated from Capital Area Intermediate Unit Multi Disabilities Support Class, Camp Hill High School, Camp Hill, PA, May 2007. His last Special Ed teacher was Matthew Dodd. In honor of his graduation his family commissioned a musical composition - a soprano/alto choral setting with oboe accompaniment of a poem by Langston Hughes entitled Hold Fast To Dreams. David Stover, the Music Director at the high school, wrote the music. This piece received its world premiere on Mothers' Day 2007 by the school choir and band members at Camp Hill High School.
Matthew went home to Jesus at Hershey Medical Center ICU after he experienced a cardiac arrest, about 3 pm, Saturday, 7/28/2012. We had returned from a 5-day train trip to Boston the previous day. Funeral at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Wednesday, 8/1/2012, handled by Hoover Funeral Home & Crematory.
In March 2013 we had a memorial concert for Matthew at Holy Trinity Lutheran to benefit Capital Area Therapeutic Riding. The church choir and our organist/choir director Alan Hair performed many of Matthew's favorites, as well as pieces that reminded us of his life including Children of the Heavenly Father (his baptismal hymn), Sunrise Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof), John Rutter's Sanctus, and the Langston Hughes poem setting we had commissioned for his graduation (with flutes instead of oboes).
During his 26 years and 5 months with us, Matthew visited Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, as well as Ontario, Canada and Bermuda.
Together we saw the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Alamo, the St. Elizabeth Seton Shrine, Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument (cliff dwellers), Sanctuary of Chimayo, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, Raystown Lake, Longwood Gardens, Baltimore Zoo, Cape May County Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, New England Aquarium, Faneuil Hall, Gettysburg Battlefield, Fort McHenry (Star Spangled Banner), Arlington Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, the Cape May, Ocean City, Avalon & Stone Harbor New Jersey beaches, East Point Lighthouse, Cape May Point Lighthouse, Baltimore Inner Harbor, B & O Train Museum, Strasburg Railroad, Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Boston Harbor, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Park, Cook Forest (PA) State Park, Philadelphia Art Museum, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Brandywine River Museum, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Fort Hunter, FDR Birthplace and Presidential Library, Calvin Coolidge Birthplace and Presidential Library, Mount Vernon, Hersheypark (including ZooAmerica), Hershey Gardens, the Susquehanna River (riding the paddlewheel riverboat The Pride of the Susquehanna), Marine Museum of the Great Lakes (Kingston, ON), Rideau Canal Visitor Centre, Bytown Museum (Ottawa), ByWard Market, Chateau Laurier, the Canadian House of Parliament and the Rideau Canal (houseboat vacations, Kingston to Ottawa).
Matthew was a 20-year horseback rider at Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (CATRA), Grantville, PA. He enjoyed watching plays and musicals at the Hershey Area Playhouse. He was a lover of all cookies and panda bears (stuffed or real). He would swing on the accessible swing in Brookside Park down the street from us for as long as anyone was willing to push him. He loved to compete in the Assisted Run and other events at the special needs sports day his school held in the spring. The assistance he needed was mainly to keep him going in the right direction. He didn't care about the ribbons, just the act of running.
The church adjacent to the cemetery where his ashes are interred runs a daycare center. They have a fenced outdoor play area along one edge of the cemetery. I think Matthew would enjoy hearing the kids playing on the swings and slides. Matthew attended a special needs Sunday School class at that church (Fishburn Methodist) for several years. It was called the Friends Class. One of his Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Ruth Winters, is buried about 30 feet north of Matthew's grave, along the same blacktop access road. His other Fishburn Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Pat Shaw, is buried in Hershey Cemetery.
There is a memorial sugar maple tree for Matthew at Brookside Park in Hershey, about 2 blocks from where he lived most of his life (photo in FAG memorial). He also has a memorial brick near the flagpole on the east side of the Hershey Volunteer Fire Company in the center of Hershey (photo in FAG memorial).
I can visualize Matthew now - riding from cloud to cloud on his first CATRA horse Soltee - maybe with Tom Mix (another Pennsylvania native) on his Tony the Wonder Horse as a riding companion. Perhaps he can audition with Sir Stephen Cleobury for a heavenly male choir, now that he can sing. He can meet his great-grandparents - Nana, who can hear him now (she was deaf in this life), Alice, who can tell him about growing up on a farm, Poppop, who can show him how to play the fiddle, Max, who can help him learn German or Yiddish if he wants to. He can go to a joint lecture by Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking about the history of the universe God created for us. He can listen to music from a pick-up group with Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Janice Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Jaqueline DuPre, Fanny Mendelsohn and Yehudi Menuhin. Matthew can see and pray for all of his family who are still in this earthbound life. As we also remember and pray for him. Till we meet at Jesus' feet.
Baptized at Zion Lutheran Church, Hummelstown, PA, 5/25/1986, Trinity Sunday, by Pastor Gerhard Dietrich, who visited us in the hospital when Matthew was born. Received first communion at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Hershey, PA, 2/25/1996, 1st Sunday in Lent, from Pastor Patricia Johnson, who helped prepare Matthew to take communion.
Confirmed by Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at the ELCA Youth Gathering, Alamo Dome, San Antonio, TX, 7/16/2006 . We attended with the youth group from Holy Trinity Lutheran, led by Pastor Cindy Brommer.
Graduated from Capital Area Intermediate Unit Multi Disabilities Support Class, Camp Hill High School, Camp Hill, PA, May 2007. His last Special Ed teacher was Matthew Dodd. In honor of his graduation his family commissioned a musical composition - a soprano/alto choral setting with oboe accompaniment of a poem by Langston Hughes entitled Hold Fast To Dreams. David Stover, the Music Director at the high school, wrote the music. This piece received its world premiere on Mothers' Day 2007 by the school choir and band members at Camp Hill High School.
Matthew went home to Jesus at Hershey Medical Center ICU after he experienced a cardiac arrest, about 3 pm, Saturday, 7/28/2012. We had returned from a 5-day train trip to Boston the previous day. Funeral at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Wednesday, 8/1/2012, handled by Hoover Funeral Home & Crematory.
In March 2013 we had a memorial concert for Matthew at Holy Trinity Lutheran to benefit Capital Area Therapeutic Riding. The church choir and our organist/choir director Alan Hair performed many of Matthew's favorites, as well as pieces that reminded us of his life including Children of the Heavenly Father (his baptismal hymn), Sunrise Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof), John Rutter's Sanctus, and the Langston Hughes poem setting we had commissioned for his graduation (with flutes instead of oboes).
During his 26 years and 5 months with us, Matthew visited Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, as well as Ontario, Canada and Bermuda.
Together we saw the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Alamo, the St. Elizabeth Seton Shrine, Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument (cliff dwellers), Sanctuary of Chimayo, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, Raystown Lake, Longwood Gardens, Baltimore Zoo, Cape May County Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, New England Aquarium, Faneuil Hall, Gettysburg Battlefield, Fort McHenry (Star Spangled Banner), Arlington Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, the Cape May, Ocean City, Avalon & Stone Harbor New Jersey beaches, East Point Lighthouse, Cape May Point Lighthouse, Baltimore Inner Harbor, B & O Train Museum, Strasburg Railroad, Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Boston Harbor, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Park, Cook Forest (PA) State Park, Philadelphia Art Museum, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Brandywine River Museum, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Fort Hunter, FDR Birthplace and Presidential Library, Calvin Coolidge Birthplace and Presidential Library, Mount Vernon, Hersheypark (including ZooAmerica), Hershey Gardens, the Susquehanna River (riding the paddlewheel riverboat The Pride of the Susquehanna), Marine Museum of the Great Lakes (Kingston, ON), Rideau Canal Visitor Centre, Bytown Museum (Ottawa), ByWard Market, Chateau Laurier, the Canadian House of Parliament and the Rideau Canal (houseboat vacations, Kingston to Ottawa).
Matthew was a 20-year horseback rider at Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (CATRA), Grantville, PA. He enjoyed watching plays and musicals at the Hershey Area Playhouse. He was a lover of all cookies and panda bears (stuffed or real). He would swing on the accessible swing in Brookside Park down the street from us for as long as anyone was willing to push him. He loved to compete in the Assisted Run and other events at the special needs sports day his school held in the spring. The assistance he needed was mainly to keep him going in the right direction. He didn't care about the ribbons, just the act of running.
The church adjacent to the cemetery where his ashes are interred runs a daycare center. They have a fenced outdoor play area along one edge of the cemetery. I think Matthew would enjoy hearing the kids playing on the swings and slides. Matthew attended a special needs Sunday School class at that church (Fishburn Methodist) for several years. It was called the Friends Class. One of his Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Ruth Winters, is buried about 30 feet north of Matthew's grave, along the same blacktop access road. His other Fishburn Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Pat Shaw, is buried in Hershey Cemetery.
There is a memorial sugar maple tree for Matthew at Brookside Park in Hershey, about 2 blocks from where he lived most of his life (photo in FAG memorial). He also has a memorial brick near the flagpole on the east side of the Hershey Volunteer Fire Company in the center of Hershey (photo in FAG memorial).
I can visualize Matthew now - riding from cloud to cloud on his first CATRA horse Soltee - maybe with Tom Mix (another Pennsylvania native) on his Tony the Wonder Horse as a riding companion. Perhaps he can audition with Sir Stephen Cleobury for a heavenly male choir, now that he can sing. He can meet his great-grandparents - Nana, who can hear him now (she was deaf in this life), Alice, who can tell him about growing up on a farm, Poppop, who can show him how to play the fiddle, Max, who can help him learn German or Yiddish if he wants to. He can go to a joint lecture by Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking about the history of the universe God created for us. He can listen to music from a pick-up group with Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Janice Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Jaqueline DuPre, Fanny Mendelsohn and Yehudi Menuhin. Matthew can see and pray for all of his family who are still in this earthbound life. As we also remember and pray for him. Till we meet at Jesus' feet.
Only child of Susan Bunting Bianchi and Edward Armond Bianchi. He was born with partial agenesis of the corpus callosum, cerebellar hypoplasia and a seizure disorder. Born at Polyclinic Hospital, Harrisburg, PA, about 1 pm on a snowy Thursday. He was delivered by Paul Fairbrother, MD. His father was in the delivery room and carried him to the newborn nursery.
Baptized at Zion Lutheran Church, Hummelstown, PA, 5/25/1986, Trinity Sunday, by Pastor Gerhard Dietrich, who visited us in the hospital when Matthew was born. Received first communion at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Hershey, PA, 2/25/1996, 1st Sunday in Lent, from Pastor Patricia Johnson, who helped prepare Matthew to take communion.
Confirmed by Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at the ELCA Youth Gathering, Alamo Dome, San Antonio, TX, 7/16/2006 . We attended with the youth group from Holy Trinity Lutheran, led by Pastor Cindy Brommer.
Graduated from Capital Area Intermediate Unit Multi Disabilities Support Class, Camp Hill High School, Camp Hill, PA, May 2007. His last Special Ed teacher was Matthew Dodd. In honor of his graduation his family commissioned a musical composition - a soprano/alto choral setting with oboe accompaniment of a poem by Langston Hughes entitled Hold Fast To Dreams. David Stover, the Music Director at the high school, wrote the music. This piece received its world premiere on Mothers' Day 2007 by the school choir and band members at Camp Hill High School.
Matthew went home to Jesus at Hershey Medical Center ICU after he experienced a cardiac arrest, about 3 pm, Saturday, 7/28/2012. We had returned from a 5-day train trip to Boston the previous day. Funeral at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Wednesday, 8/1/2012, handled by Hoover Funeral Home & Crematory.
In March 2013 we had a memorial concert for Matthew at Holy Trinity Lutheran to benefit Capital Area Therapeutic Riding. The church choir and our organist/choir director Alan Hair performed many of Matthew's favorites, as well as pieces that reminded us of his life including Children of the Heavenly Father (his baptismal hymn), Sunrise Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof), John Rutter's Sanctus, and the Langston Hughes poem setting we had commissioned for his graduation (with flutes instead of oboes).
During his 26 years and 5 months with us, Matthew visited Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, as well as Ontario, Canada and Bermuda.
Together we saw the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Alamo, the St. Elizabeth Seton Shrine, Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument (cliff dwellers), Sanctuary of Chimayo, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, Raystown Lake, Longwood Gardens, Baltimore Zoo, Cape May County Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, New England Aquarium, Faneuil Hall, Gettysburg Battlefield, Fort McHenry (Star Spangled Banner), Arlington Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, the Cape May, Ocean City, Avalon & Stone Harbor New Jersey beaches, East Point Lighthouse, Cape May Point Lighthouse, Baltimore Inner Harbor, B & O Train Museum, Strasburg Railroad, Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Boston Harbor, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Park, Cook Forest (PA) State Park, Philadelphia Art Museum, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Brandywine River Museum, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Fort Hunter, FDR Birthplace and Presidential Library, Calvin Coolidge Birthplace and Presidential Library, Mount Vernon, Hersheypark (including ZooAmerica), Hershey Gardens, the Susquehanna River (riding the paddlewheel riverboat The Pride of the Susquehanna), Marine Museum of the Great Lakes (Kingston, ON), Rideau Canal Visitor Centre, Bytown Museum (Ottawa), ByWard Market, Chateau Laurier, the Canadian House of Parliament and the Rideau Canal (houseboat vacations, Kingston to Ottawa).
Matthew was a 20-year horseback rider at Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (CATRA), Grantville, PA. He enjoyed watching plays and musicals at the Hershey Area Playhouse. He was a lover of all cookies and panda bears (stuffed or real). He would swing on the accessible swing in Brookside Park down the street from us for as long as anyone was willing to push him. He loved to compete in the Assisted Run and other events at the special needs sports day his school held in the spring. The assistance he needed was mainly to keep him going in the right direction. He didn't care about the ribbons, just the act of running.
The church adjacent to the cemetery where his ashes are interred runs a daycare center. They have a fenced outdoor play area along one edge of the cemetery. I think Matthew would enjoy hearing the kids playing on the swings and slides. Matthew attended a special needs Sunday School class at that church (Fishburn Methodist) for several years. It was called the Friends Class. One of his Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Ruth Winters, is buried about 30 feet north of Matthew's grave, along the same blacktop access road. His other Fishburn Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Pat Shaw, is buried in Hershey Cemetery.
There is a memorial sugar maple tree for Matthew at Brookside Park in Hershey, about 2 blocks from where he lived most of his life (photo in FAG memorial). He also has a memorial brick near the flagpole on the east side of the Hershey Volunteer Fire Company in the center of Hershey (photo in FAG memorial).
I can visualize Matthew now - riding from cloud to cloud on his first CATRA horse Soltee - maybe with Tom Mix (another Pennsylvania native) on his Tony the Wonder Horse as a riding companion. Perhaps he can audition with Sir Stephen Cleobury for a heavenly male choir, now that he can sing. He can meet his great-grandparents - Nana, who can hear him now (she was deaf in this life), Alice, who can tell him about growing up on a farm, Poppop, who can show him how to play the fiddle, Max, who can help him learn German or Yiddish if he wants to. He can go to a joint lecture by Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking about the history of the universe God created for us. He can listen to music from a pick-up group with Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Janice Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Jaqueline DuPre, Fanny Mendelsohn and Yehudi Menuhin. Matthew can see and pray for all of his family who are still in this earthbound life. As we also remember and pray for him. Till we meet at Jesus' feet.
Baptized at Zion Lutheran Church, Hummelstown, PA, 5/25/1986, Trinity Sunday, by Pastor Gerhard Dietrich, who visited us in the hospital when Matthew was born. Received first communion at Holy Trinity Lutheran, Hershey, PA, 2/25/1996, 1st Sunday in Lent, from Pastor Patricia Johnson, who helped prepare Matthew to take communion.
Confirmed by Rev. Mark Hanson, Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, at the ELCA Youth Gathering, Alamo Dome, San Antonio, TX, 7/16/2006 . We attended with the youth group from Holy Trinity Lutheran, led by Pastor Cindy Brommer.
Graduated from Capital Area Intermediate Unit Multi Disabilities Support Class, Camp Hill High School, Camp Hill, PA, May 2007. His last Special Ed teacher was Matthew Dodd. In honor of his graduation his family commissioned a musical composition - a soprano/alto choral setting with oboe accompaniment of a poem by Langston Hughes entitled Hold Fast To Dreams. David Stover, the Music Director at the high school, wrote the music. This piece received its world premiere on Mothers' Day 2007 by the school choir and band members at Camp Hill High School.
Matthew went home to Jesus at Hershey Medical Center ICU after he experienced a cardiac arrest, about 3 pm, Saturday, 7/28/2012. We had returned from a 5-day train trip to Boston the previous day. Funeral at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Wednesday, 8/1/2012, handled by Hoover Funeral Home & Crematory.
In March 2013 we had a memorial concert for Matthew at Holy Trinity Lutheran to benefit Capital Area Therapeutic Riding. The church choir and our organist/choir director Alan Hair performed many of Matthew's favorites, as well as pieces that reminded us of his life including Children of the Heavenly Father (his baptismal hymn), Sunrise Sunset (from Fiddler on the Roof), John Rutter's Sanctus, and the Langston Hughes poem setting we had commissioned for his graduation (with flutes instead of oboes).
During his 26 years and 5 months with us, Matthew visited Arizona, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont and Virginia, as well as Ontario, Canada and Bermuda.
Together we saw the Grand Canyon, the Everglades, the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Alamo, the St. Elizabeth Seton Shrine, Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument (cliff dwellers), Sanctuary of Chimayo, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, National Constitution Center, Lake Ontario, Lake Champlain, Raystown Lake, Longwood Gardens, Baltimore Zoo, Cape May County Zoo, Philadelphia Zoo, New England Aquarium, Faneuil Hall, Gettysburg Battlefield, Fort McHenry (Star Spangled Banner), Arlington Cemetery, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Lincoln Memorial, FDR Memorial, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, the Cape May, Ocean City, Avalon & Stone Harbor New Jersey beaches, East Point Lighthouse, Cape May Point Lighthouse, Baltimore Inner Harbor, B & O Train Museum, Strasburg Railroad, Middletown & Hummelstown Railroad, Indiantown Gap National Cemetery, Boston Harbor, Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Park, Cook Forest (PA) State Park, Philadelphia Art Museum, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Brandywine River Museum, Pennsylvania State Capitol, Fort Hunter, FDR Birthplace and Presidential Library, Calvin Coolidge Birthplace and Presidential Library, Mount Vernon, Hersheypark (including ZooAmerica), Hershey Gardens, the Susquehanna River (riding the paddlewheel riverboat The Pride of the Susquehanna), Marine Museum of the Great Lakes (Kingston, ON), Rideau Canal Visitor Centre, Bytown Museum (Ottawa), ByWard Market, Chateau Laurier, the Canadian House of Parliament and the Rideau Canal (houseboat vacations, Kingston to Ottawa).
Matthew was a 20-year horseback rider at Capital Area Therapeutic Riding Association (CATRA), Grantville, PA. He enjoyed watching plays and musicals at the Hershey Area Playhouse. He was a lover of all cookies and panda bears (stuffed or real). He would swing on the accessible swing in Brookside Park down the street from us for as long as anyone was willing to push him. He loved to compete in the Assisted Run and other events at the special needs sports day his school held in the spring. The assistance he needed was mainly to keep him going in the right direction. He didn't care about the ribbons, just the act of running.
The church adjacent to the cemetery where his ashes are interred runs a daycare center. They have a fenced outdoor play area along one edge of the cemetery. I think Matthew would enjoy hearing the kids playing on the swings and slides. Matthew attended a special needs Sunday School class at that church (Fishburn Methodist) for several years. It was called the Friends Class. One of his Sunday School teachers, Mrs. Ruth Winters, is buried about 30 feet north of Matthew's grave, along the same blacktop access road. His other Fishburn Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Pat Shaw, is buried in Hershey Cemetery.
There is a memorial sugar maple tree for Matthew at Brookside Park in Hershey, about 2 blocks from where he lived most of his life (photo in FAG memorial). He also has a memorial brick near the flagpole on the east side of the Hershey Volunteer Fire Company in the center of Hershey (photo in FAG memorial).
I can visualize Matthew now - riding from cloud to cloud on his first CATRA horse Soltee - maybe with Tom Mix (another Pennsylvania native) on his Tony the Wonder Horse as a riding companion. Perhaps he can audition with Sir Stephen Cleobury for a heavenly male choir, now that he can sing. He can meet his great-grandparents - Nana, who can hear him now (she was deaf in this life), Alice, who can tell him about growing up on a farm, Poppop, who can show him how to play the fiddle, Max, who can help him learn German or Yiddish if he wants to. He can go to a joint lecture by Carl Sagan and Steven Hawking about the history of the universe God created for us. He can listen to music from a pick-up group with Duke Ellington, Bix Beiderbecke, Janice Joplin, Louis Armstrong, Edith Piaf, Jaqueline DuPre, Fanny Mendelsohn and Yehudi Menuhin. Matthew can see and pray for all of his family who are still in this earthbound life. As we also remember and pray for him. Till we meet at Jesus' feet.
Inscription
In the shadow of your wings
I sing for joy. Psalm 63:7
Gravesite Details
Urn with Matthew's ashes was interred on Sunday, December 2, 2012 (Advent 1) with a brief graveside service. Grave marker fabricated by Granite State Grave Markers of NH. His mother owns the adjacent plot and plans to have her ashes interred there.
