The gum stuck in my son’s hair nearly ended the months he’d spent growing it for his best friend’s wig. I thought the haircut would close that chapter. Instead, the next morning, I was called to school where Lily’s father pointed at Ethan and said my son had done something else I knew nothing about.
The first time Ethan came home with gum stuck in his hair, I reached for the scissors.
“No, Mom!”
He jumped backward.
“Ethan, it’s gum.”
“Then get it out without cutting anything. Put an ice cube on it until it hardens, then pick it out.”
My fourteen-year-old son stood in our kitchen looking like he’d lost a fight with a candy machine.
He’d been growing his hair for months.
He was growing it for Lily.
They’d been best friends since elementary school, surviving terrible lunches, spelling bees, and a third-grade science project involving worms that escaped into my car.
Then, the previous year, Lily was diagnosed with cancer.
They’d been best friends since elementary school.
Chemotherapy caused her hair to fall out.
One evening, Ethan came home unusually quiet.
“Mom?”
“Yes, honey?”
“Can people make wigs out of real hair?”
“Sometimes.”
“Could I give Lily mine?”
He was completely serious.
We researched donation programs together.
Eventually, I contacted an organization that worked with professional wigmakers. They explained the required length, processing time, and how Ethan’s donated hair could be incorporated into a wig made for Lily.
“How long?” Ethan asked.
When I told him, he groaned.
“That’s forever.”
“You don’t have to do this, sweetie.”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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