A Walk Through Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park

Mattie J. T. Stepanek Park in King Farm was named for the late poet, author and philosopher Mattie Stepanek, who died at age 13 of a rare neuromuscular disease in 2004.

The audio in this video recording is “Heartsong,” one of Stepanek’s many poems that can be heard at the boy’s memorial at the center of the park.

Stepanek, a resident of Rockville, was the youngest of four children. But he and his siblings—Katie, Stevie and Jamie—died from a rare neuromuscular disease that their mother, Jeni Stepanek, unknowingly passed to her kids before she was diagnosed.

Before he left this earth, Mattie published seven best-selling books and befriended the world’s most influential philosophers and opinion leaders—including former President Jimmy Carter and Oprah Winfrey.