I unfolded the note.<\/p>\n
The handwriting was shaky.<\/p>\n
It read:<\/p>\n
\n“Thank you for your hair. You don’t know me, but because of you, I’ll get to feel beautiful again.”<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Below the message…<\/p>\n
Was a name.<\/p>\n
Emma.<\/strong><\/p>\n
And the words:<\/p>\n
Children’s Oncology Ward.<\/strong><\/p>\n
I looked up at Maya.<\/p>\n
“What is this?”<\/p>\n
She wiped away a tear.<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t bullying.”<\/p>\n
I stared at her.<\/p>\n
“Then…”<\/p>\n
“What happened?”<\/p>\n
She took a deep breath.<\/p>\n
“Last month, our school counselor told us about a girl at the children’s hospital.”<\/p>\n
“She’s nine.”<\/p>\n
“She lost all of her hair during chemotherapy.”<\/p>\n
“She stopped leaving her room because she didn’t want anyone to see her.”<\/p>\n
My husband slowly lowered the car keys.<\/p>\n
Maya continued.<\/p>\n
“I asked if I could donate my hair.”<\/p>\n
I whispered,<\/p>\n
“But…”<\/p>\n
“…why didn’t you tell us?”<\/p>\n
She looked down.<\/p>\n
“Because I knew you’d want to take me to a salon.”<\/p>\n
“The hospital called yesterday.”<\/p>\n
“They said Emma’s treatment got worse.”<\/p>\n
“They needed the hair immediately.”<\/p>\n
“So after school…”<\/p>\n
“My art teacher helped me cut it.”<\/p>\n
I looked again at the uneven haircut.<\/p>\n
“The teacher did this?”<\/p>\n
Maya smiled weakly.<\/p>\n
“No.”<\/p>\n
“I asked her to stop after the first cut.”<\/p>\n
“Then I finished it myself.”<\/p>\n
“You…”<\/p>\n
“…cut your own hair?”<\/p>\n
“I wanted every inch to go to Emma.”<\/p>\n
Silence filled the room.<\/p>\n
My husband quietly sat beside me.<\/p>\n
For several long seconds…<\/p>\n
None of us spoke.<\/p>\n
A week later…<\/p>\n
The hospital invited us to visit.<\/p>\n
Emma sat quietly in a playroom wearing a colorful knit cap.<\/p>\n
When the nurse placed the finished wig gently onto her head…<\/p>\n
She slowly walked toward the mirror.<\/p>\n
She touched her hair.<\/p>\n
Smiled.<\/p>\n
Then burst into tears.<\/p>\n
“I look like me again.”<\/p>\n
Maya stood quietly in the corner.<\/p>\n
Trying not to cry.<\/p>\n
Emma turned around.<\/p>\n
Walked straight to her.<\/p>\n
And wrapped her tiny arms around Maya.<\/p>\n
“Thank you.”<\/p>\n
“My brother said superheroes aren’t real.”<\/p>\n
“But he was wrong.”<\/p>\n
Several nurses wiped tears from their eyes.<\/p>\n
Even my husband couldn’t hide his.<\/p>\n
On the drive home…<\/p>\n
I looked at Maya.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry.”<\/p>\n
She frowned.<\/p>\n
“For what?”<\/p>\n
“For assuming the worst before asking you what really happened.”<\/p>\n
She reached over and squeezed my hand.<\/p>\n
“It’s okay, Mom.”<\/p>\n
“I probably would’ve thought the same thing.”<\/p>\n
A few months later…<\/p>\n
Maya’s hair had already begun growing back.<\/p>\n
Emma’s treatment was going well.<\/p>\n
The two girls became pen pals.<\/p>\n
Then best friends.<\/p>\n
Years afterward, people often complimented Maya’s long hair whenever it grew back.<\/p>\n
She would simply smile and say,<\/p>\n
“It’s only hair.”<\/p>\n
“It grows back.”<\/p>\n
“But giving someone hope…”<\/p>\n
“That’s something they’ll remember forever.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I unfolded the note. The handwriting was shaky. It read: “Thank you for your hair. You don’t know me, but because of you, I’ll get to feel beautiful again.” Below the message… Was a name. Emma. And the words: Children’s Oncology Ward. I looked up at Maya. “What is this?” She wiped away a tear. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7102,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7101\/revisions\/7102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}