# Question about Mattie J.T. Stepanik **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 26, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281 "2004-06-26T04:43:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/1 "2004-06-26T04:43:51Z")
I don’t cry often, but this kid and his poor mom have been getting to me all week. God. I wanted to know what happened to the father. I don’t recall him ever being mentioned in any interview, although the sister and two brothers who died first always came up. The AP obituary only mentions the mother as a survivor. Is the father dead? Did he have MD too? Is anyone else as eaten up about this as I am? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/2 "2004-06-26T05:50:43Z")
Sorry, I don’t have an answer. I wanted to ask–is this the boy who was on Oprah a year or two ago (or more)? In a wheel chair and with a breathing machine? If that’s him, I remember being quite moved by his spirit and his writings. I am not very emotional, but I teared up watching that show. Did he die recently? I hadn’t seen anything. And I didn’t remember that about his siblings. Truly sad. ---
**Author:** ![dnooman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/839c29/32.png) [@dnooman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dnooman)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2004, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/3 "2004-06-26T06:37:08Z")
That kind of person only comes along once in a lifetime. Truly a remarkable kid. The fact that he’s had 3 siblings die already kind of puts me in a quandry. Why is his mother still having children? After the third freakin’ kid dies, take a hint. Thank god she didn’t though, otherwise Mattie wouldn’t have been born. Sorry if that sounds callous. I know that she has a right to have a child, but sometimes you have to think of the kid’s potential health first. It really pisses me off when women over 50 get careless and manage to become pregnant, the chances of birth defects are greatly magnified. Most people describe Mattie as a poet, that he was. I think of him as a philosopher though, he knew of many things in life that people don’t usually ever understand. He will be missed. I feel bad for his mother too. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/4 "2004-06-27T04:13:24Z")
Sure sounds like him, Tangent. Has to be. There’s a photo up at [CNN](http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/books/06/22/obit.stepanek.ap/index.html) if that helps. The episode Larry King ran this week had him ask why have so many kids if they’re going to have this disease. Answer: they were all born within four years, and the first two were diagnosed post-mortem. This was also why I was wondering about the father, whether he also had MD and together with the mother’s, it produced this nightmare version of MD. ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/5 "2004-06-27T14:09:09Z")
Indeed, Mattie Stepanik is the same Mattie who captured hearts on Oprah. I’m not sure what happened to dad. But to clarify the why more kids question. MD doesn’t always run in families. She may have been told each time that it probably wouldn’t happen again. I don’t know much about Mattie’s type of MD but I do know some kids live much longer than Mattie or his sibs. Sorry, not much help. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/6 "2004-06-27T14:37:12Z")
> [@](#): > > KING: How about your dad? > > STEPANEK: We’re divorced from my father because he did some mean and scary things to us. > > KING: You don’t see him? > > STEPANEK: I don’t like to point fingers or talk about him. > > KING: You don’t see him? > > STEPANEK: No. [http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/17/lkl.00.html](http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0204/17/lkl.00.html) ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2004, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-mattie-j-t-stepanik/252281/7 "2004-06-28T04:06:41Z")
Thanks for the transcript, I didn’t know those were online. Also a fuller answer to why have kids with MD: Mom didn’t know she had it, either. > [@](#): > > MATTIE STEPANEK, 11-YEAR-OLD POET: It’s a rare form of muscular dystrophy called disautonomic myocondrial myopathy. And it’s non- curable. There’s not even a known treatment. And I have three siblings, two brothers and one sister, only one of which I know that died from the same thing I have during young childhood. And my mom has the adult onset form of it. She had it, but she didn’t know. It didn’t really hurt her very badly until about 10 or 15 years ago.