Dear Friends,
What
is a sacrifice? Or better yet…a sacrifice of love? Or still better…could that
love take the form of hair? The answer is yes.
Just
about every girl knows that having the perfect hair is quite important. Girls
wake up hours earlier than they need to…simply to straighten their hair, curl
it, etc. And the perfect length hair is crucial as well. Having it be too long
is a nightmare, too short makes one look like a boy. Yet to donate hair
requires the former.
My
sisters, mother, and I have been growing out our hair
for the past two years. We had always thought it was a good idea to grow out
our hair so that it could be made into a wig that somebody else could hopefully
use. We just never thought that someone in our own family would need it. When
Lydia got sick and started undergoing treatment, her hair began to fall out. It
wasn’t long before it was all gone. She ended up applying for a wig from Locks
of Love, an organization that makes wigs out of donated hair. However, she
never got a chance to receive it, let alone use it.
The rest of the girls in the
family decided that we would donate our hair together, in honor of her, and…in
memory of her. When asked why we grew out our hair, we had an immediate answer.
One that was simple and obvious. For our sister. All the same, having a reason,
did not make the process easier. Washing hair now took ages, drying the hair
took even longer, we were in the bathroom for hours every night just keeping it
clean, not to mention making it look presentable. My dad often complained of
the mass amounts of hair…everywhere. And it was HOT. Being in Taiwan for about
a month was not easy. The humidity and the heat, and the sunlight soaking into
my long, black hair, made me want to scream. But even now as I write this, I
can only shake my head and think about how incredibly trivial all my complaints
are. My little sister lost all her hair to a treatment that was trying to cure
her from a disease aiming for her life. And all I can do is think about the
half hour shower that I have to take. Once again, she puts me to shame. I wish
my sacrifice for her wasn’t my hair. Such an insignificant thing. How many
times have I wished that my sacrifice could have been greater? How many times
have I wished that it were I undergoing the pain, the killing treatments? How
many times have I prayed that God would take me instead of her? That my
sacrifice for her would be my life. Still, God chose her, and in the end, she
was the one that deserved to go Home.
And
now I donate my hair, in memory of her. And in honor of the many others who are
undergoing various diseases or who face and have faced cancer and its
horrors…like my little sister. I donate so that some little girl, or teenager,
or even lady, may have some joy in her life because of the hair I have given. I
donate so that she will have a smile on her face when my hair becomes hers.
I donate my Locks of Love. I donate…out of love. And I donate because I can see Lydia’s face smiling as she looks upon her family remembering her…by loving others just like her.
Love,
