November 12, 2023 - The Haircut

      It has been two months since I had the shortest haircut since I was a boy, so I was getting shaggy.  Friday when I walked into the salon I was greeted by the stylist.  Jewel took me next because I had signed in on the way through the app on my phone. 
      As I sat in the chair I showed her the scar from the thyroid surgery.  I wanted to be sure that the snaps on the cape would be above the scar.  It was apparent that I had cancer.
      I asked her about her name.  Jewel was the name given to her at birth by her dad.  That started a conversation that lasted the length of the haircut, mostly about her dad.
      It never ceases to amaze me how God has a way of putting people into our paths.
      The conversation that we had about her dad was more than uncanny.  I couldn’t have scripted it.
      Jewel shared about her dad in the past tense.  He had passed away 15 years ago of cancer.  Ironically of sarcoma.  His cancer didn’t respond to chemotherapy, which 15 years ago was the case with sarcomas. 
      I was offered chemotherapy 22 years ago after having the sarcoma removed from my leg.  I was told that chemotherapy would give me only a 5% chance of living longer.  I declined. 
      Jewel talked about her dad’s long, beautiful hair.  When the doctors told him that he was facing chemotherapy for the cancer, he asked Jewel to shave his head.
       When he had surgery the cancer was determined to be so extensive that the doctors realized that chemotherapy would have no effect.  He could have kept his hair.
       Somehow you just can’t make these things up.   The next haircut that I get after a short haircut because I thought I would lose my hair from chemotherapy I end up in this dear lady’s chair.  I obviously shared the story with her that I considered doing the same thing as her dad, only to find out a few hours later that I wouldn’t have the stem cell transplant after all.
       I am not sure if the “chance” encounter was for Jewel’s benefit or for mine.  The wound was still an open one for her and her memories vivid.  By the time she unsnapped the cape she had some comfort that someone understood and cared.
       I had the same feeling.
       Her dad was right when she was born.  She is a Jewel.