Heartsongs author dies

Mattie Stepanek, who was both the MDA's National Goodwill Ambassador in 2002, 2003, & 2004 and the boy poet who touched many and who counted Oprah and former President Jimmy Carter among his many admirers, has died at the age of 13. Mattie had dysautonomic mitochondrial myopathy, a genetic neuromuscular disease that impaired almost all of his body's major functions, like heart rate, breathing, blood pressure and digestion, and caused muscle weakness.

Mattie once said, "I want people to know my life philosophy, to remember to play after every storm."