Bald is Beautiful

Wow. I hope that I can generate the words to do today justice.

First, let me tell you how much my brothers love their hair. Okay-- yeah, love is an understatement. These two have long golden (Zach) and chocolate brown (Andrew), plush mane's which are a true compliment to their laid-back, hockey player style. Their hair, on no occasion is to be touched without gaining permission first... Do you get the picture?! They LOVE their hair.

Well today, both Zach and Andrew buzzed off their precious, perfectly messy, long locks of hair to show their support for my mom. I have never seen something so selfless; I was literally moved to tears, it touched me that deeply. To see two very YOUNG and sometimes selfish (sorry boys, but its true... love you!) teenagers abandon their "signature" hair to demonstrate their steadfast support for our mother as she loses her hair, was the most endearing thing I have ever witnessed in my twenty two years of being.

While Zach and Andrew were taking clippers to their hair, so was my Uncle Scott (more on him in hot second) and my mom. Today I buzzed off what was left of her hair. With more than a few tears streaming from my eyes, I managed to finish the task. I have to admit I felt silly for crying when my mom barely had wet eyes. It is here where I must confess that I watched my mother, the woman whom I have idolized my entire life and thought, holy crap; if I can be HALF as strong as she is, HALF as determined, OR have HALF the amount of faith in God that she does, I will be a wonderful person- but she? She is AMAZING. Today I watched my hero lose the last of her beautiful hair (hey, where do you think the boys got theirs from?!). And while it fell to the kitchen floor, she kept her head up and smile on her face. This is just one more reason I KNOW that Cancer has not found a long term home with Susan Chase.

In the midst of my epiphany, I looked across the kitchen where my dear Uncle Scott was buzzing his head too... and I immediately let out a gut wrenching chuckle. He not only has a misshapen head, but he had (at the time, it is fixed now) patches of hair still on his newly shaven bald head, compliments of Aunt Michelle and her hair expert styling. Kian, Michelle and Scott's 3 month old, cried when we saw his father's very bald head! We then discussed how many times Scott may have been dropped on his head as child, being that his head was rather, well, not round?!

It was with Scott and Michelle's comic relief paired with Zach and Andrew's hair-hacking support, that helped me (and I am SURE my mom as well) through the final clippings.

From here we have to be positive. No hair means the chemo is working. Working chemo equivocates to NO Cancer. No Cancer equals remission. That means this time next year, mom will have her award-winning hair back, but more importantly she will be through this bump in the road and on to doing something else that amazes me!

P.S. During all this hair clipping Sidney hid and my dad was front row and center being a wonderful supporter as well :)