Eye-Catching
Tashkent, Uzbekistan 2012
We’d been in the Stans for about 10 days and we were ready to eat another cuisine. We decided on Korean food…hot and spicy compared to the more bland fare of the Uzbeks. Uzbeks must feel the same need for variety as the market place is filled with Koreans selling kimchi and other fiery salads. But we couldn’t find the Korean restaurant and decided to have an Italian lunch instead. I can’t tell you how good it tasted.
The young woman with the unique french braids sat on the other side of the window from me. I’d never seen braids like hers. Truly, they were her crowning glory. My camera was handy, naturally, and I got my shot.
My mother used to french braid my hair. She braided them so tightly that she only had to re-braid them every other day. When we moved to South Carolina, my braids were often commented on. My thick, dark hair was unusual among all the blond, blue-eyed natives.
I took my hair for granted until I went through chemo. It didn’t come back quite the same, but now I’m grateful for every strand. Recently, when I was shopping, I noticed a beautiful young woman with a bald head. I could only think that she was going through chemotherapy and my heart broke to see such a young person going through that ordeal. I asked her if I could give her a hug. (I know only old ladies do that.) She looked surprised, but acquiesced. I said something about having gone through cancer myself and offered my wishes for her recovery. I got emotional and could hardly keep the tears back. Somehow she began to console me.
It turned out that she had been bald from childhood, that she was a twin and her sister was bald, also. She chose not to wear a wig but her sister wouldn’t go out without a wig. I might have felt foolish for jumping to conclusions, but she was so sweet that I only felt fortunate to have had spoken to her.