I somehow missed this last week, but child poet Mattie Stepanek passed away on Tuesday, June 22. He was thirteen years old. According to the story at CNN.com, he died due to complications from dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic disease that impaired his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion, and caused muscle weakness.

Denise and I learned about Mattie a few years back when his books started to gain national attention. Now, I’m no poetry critic and I couldn’t tell you if his poetry was actually any good. The thing that impressed me about this kid was his optimistic spirit in the face of what I would consider a pretty miserable existence. Mattie was wheelchair-bound and relied on a feeding tube, a ventilator and frequent blood transfusions to stay alive. Three of his older siblings had died of the same disease that eventually claimed his own life, and he surely understood what that meant for his own life expectancy. Despite all this, he remained upbeat and hopeful. My impression, based on a handful of his television interviews, is that he was an unusually mature and thoughtful young man who inspired a lot of people with his words.