A Better View

By Tom Cooper

Ernest and Anneke Robison welcomed their son Matthew to the world in 1988. Due to a lack of oxygen, he was blind and paralyzed from the neck down and never spoke more than a few words. Soon after the doctors delivered little Matthew, they told his parents he would only live a few hours. However, Matthew surpassed the doctors’ expectations; surrounded by love and faith, he lived to be 10-and-a-half years old.

The family faced this journey with the strength and support of God and a deep love for Matthew. He was an inspiration to the entire community.

When it came time to lay Matthew to rest in 1999, his parents decided his gravestone should be something beautiful and unique, something that would portray Matthew in his truest form and would signify hope, rather than grief. Ernest designed a tombstone depicting the happiness he wanted for his son in both life and death.

The statue, which shows Matthew standing up from his wheelchair and reaching for the sky, has become a place of hope, comfort, and affirmation in the midst of grief, sadness, and loss.

Matthew’s statue, located in a Salt Lake City cemetery, has been visited and viewed by millions of people from all over the world. It transcends the earthly realities of Matthew’s struggles and evokes a sense of joy, capturing “the completeness of spirit” he embodied in life--a completeness we all long for, for ourselves and our loved ones.

Aren’t we all, in some ways, like Matthew and his parents? We struggle to navigate our own and others’ limitations and difficulties. According to Matthew’s parents, “Peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, February 21, 1999, our cherished son, brother, and friend, Matthew Stanford Robison, was received into a state of happiness, and began his rest from troubles, care, and sorrow in the arms of his Savior and friend Jesus Christ.”

May Matthew’s life remind us all to keep our life and others’ lives in an eternal perspective.

Blessings,
Tom

• Thanks to the articles written by Barbara Diamond (Little Things), and the Huffington Post.

• Ability Found is a non-profit organization established by the Robison family to help others who face similar struggles.

• Thank you to our editors Juliana, Karen, Madison, Nicola, & Valeria

• Picture courtesy of https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7140314/matthew-stanford-robison