Sisters In Pink

Since moving into cancerland I have made a lot of new friends, some local like Melanie and Stephanie and some cyber friends, woman walking the same path as me that I have met online and been in touch with, sharing our journeys thru email, text and phone calls. Each woman is different, each treatment, each stage, each feeling is different. But what we all have in common is breast cancer. We are all sisters in pink and we all hold each other up, lift each other up. Friendships and bonds form quickly when you are wearing pink, quicker than any other friendship I have has ever formed. And I like to think that had I met these women under different circumstances, we would still be friends.

Today something happened, something I thought may happen and at times feared would happen (feared because I wasn’t sure how I would respond to it). Today someone approached me. Out of the clear blue. I was standing in front of Michelle’s day camp getting ready to bring her and her friend inside when a woman approached and asked me how I tied my head scarf on so nicely. Because she had recently had her 2^nd chemo and her hair was starting to fall out.

How she knew I had breast cancer and had no hair is beyond me. Actually, maybe she didn’t know, maybe she just liked the way my scarf was tied. Yeah, that’s possible.

I was dumbfounded by her question and while it took me only a moment to respond it felt like an eternity. My first thought was “I have no idea how to tie these things on well” and my second thought was “Here is a new sister in pink”.

We went out then for coffee and to chat. Spent about an hour together as we shared our stories, our treatments, our fears and our future plans. She has a daughter Michelle’s age and we spent a long time discussing the girls and their reactions. We discussed getting the girls together so that they could share their thoughts and get some play time in too. Both of the girls want a friend that is walking their same path too.

What an amazingly small world. I resent the way all these new friends have come into my life, but I am so thankful for each and every one of them. I look forward to many, many years of friendship with these women.

As a side note…to anyone who thought I was jumping the gun by shaving my hair last Wednesday… I have this to say to you: This past Monday, 13 days after my first chemo, what little hair I have left started to fall out at an alarmingly fast rate. You would do well to remember not to judge. It would be better if you just kept those thoughts to yourself.