They informed me that an OR nurse is gathering donations for Locks of Love, and that they had sacrificed their ponytails to the cause. One of the girls, Sarah, pulled me over to the computer and poked around on Facebook for a while until she found the photo she was looking for.
This is my best friend Alex, she told me, pointing to a gorgeous, smiling woman, one who just happened to be completely bald. She's got breast cancer. Alex beamed back at me from the photo, the strength in her eyes unmistakable and I felt my own hair on my back and I knew what I had to do.
In the end, it's not about making a statement. It's not about being altruistic or even about getting a free haircut out of the former hairdresser on board who's been making the rounds, collecting ponytails in little plastic bags.
It's because we all know someone who's been affected by cancer. We all know someone who's fought, and most of us know someone who's lost. I see kids on the ship all the time, kids like Aime and Madinath and Rachelle who are fighting their own demons, waging their own battles against this horrible disease. And I have watched helplessly from this side of the ocean while a woman who is as close as family to me went into the operating room, refusing to let the cancer take her from us all.
So it's for them, I guess. For Laura and Rachelle and Sadie and all the others, it's my way of standing up. The only way I know how to say that it isn't fair that some have a harder road to walk than others.(And let's be honest; this is going to make staying under the two-minute shower limit way easier.)
