It was inevitable, but there was still part of both of us that thought . . . just maybe, it will hang on.  Linda’s hair had lasted longer than we were expecting, almost to the point that we thought she might make it through without losing it.  A couple of days ago, Linda texted me a picture of a bunch of hair in the sink with the text, “Combing my hair. It is hurting my head. 😦 ”  By the time I had come home that evening, she had lost about 1/3 of her hair.  Needless to say, this was a bit of an emotional hurdle.  I thought she still had enough to try to wait it out; but by the next day she had decided it was time to shave it.

The conversations with our children at moments such as this have been challenging.  No parenting class prepares you the “so, should we shave mom’s head today” conversation.  Following a fairly relaxed conversation, we all ventured downstairs to cut Linda’s hair.  We offered a couple of options to Linda (genuinely by the way) . . . (1) Do you want us to do this quick and grieve with you or (2) do you want to try to make this a fun memory.  She opted for number 2, and the first goal became to see what kind of Mohawk we could produce.  [By the way, while pictures were taken, no one gets to see them. 🙂 ]  Mohawk gave way to buzz cut which gave way to a half hour of trying on every hat, scarf, and wig we had picked out over the last couple of months. If you want a mental picture, think Jamie Lee Curtis’ short gray hair.

With that said, she is sitting next to me as I type this . . . and the pile of short gray hairs is increasing as the minutes go by.  Ryan and I told her to stop pulling it out like some trichotillomaniac, but I think she’s actually enjoying it a little.  While Linda is processing this hair loss quite well I would like to discourage any of you from running past her and pulling off one of her new hats like some muddle-headed junior high boy. 🙂