“My hair will grow back. I just don’t want you to be sad.”
***
This morning, she showed up at our house wearing a scarf tied at the back of her neck.
Brenda is not a scarf person.
Mark and I exchanged a look as she reached up and untied it.
Her head was completely shaved. Clean and smooth, her ears looking very exposed, making her seem somehow younger all at once.
“If Lily has to be brave enough to lose her hair,” Brenda said, “I can learn a little of what that feels like.”
Her head was completely shaved.
Then she reached into her bag, pulled out a small white box, and gave it to Lily.
My daughter opened it slowly.
Inside was a wig. Golden. Curly. The curls catching the light exactly the way Leo’s always had.
Lily lifted it out with both hands and put it on her head. Leo leaned forward and studied his sister very seriously.
“You look like yourself again, Lily!”
Lily laughed. It was the first time she’d laughed like that in weeks, and the sound of it filled the entire room.
Lily lifted it out with both hands and put it on her head.
My mother-in-law wiped her eyes and looked at me.
“I know this isn’t the same as what Leo was willing to do for his sister. Nothing could be. But I wanted all of you to know how much I love my grandchildren… and how sorry I truly am.”
Mark squeezed my hand, picked up his keys, and headed for the door. “I’ll see you tonight,” he said, and smiled in the way he does when he knows everything is going to be okay.
My son made a promise at five years old that most adults wouldn’t have thought to make.
Turns out he was the one teaching all of us.
“I wanted all of you to know how much I love my grandchildren.”
