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.”
Chemotherapy caused her hair to fall out.
“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.
“Could I give Lily mine?”
“How long?” Ethan asked.
When I told him, he groaned.
“That’s forever.”
“You don’t have to do this, sweetie.”
“I know,” he muttered. “But I want to. She’s my friend, Mom.”
“You don’t have to do this, sweetie.”
The next morning, he asked me to buy a better hairbrush.
Some boys called him “Princess Ethan.”
