Louise Owens used to have hair. Blond (金色的) and thick, it hung down her back.
Augustus Papaceno, her 11-year-old son, used to have hair, too. His was also blond (though, admittedly (无可否认地) a bit more natural than hers).
It hung down his back, too. People would tell Louise, "I saw Augustus flying by on his bike today. All that hair!"
He hadn't had it cut since June 2005, when he and his friends decided to grow their hair for Locks of Love. The nonprofit organization provides wigs (假发) for children suffering from long-term medical hair loss from any diagnosis.
Augustus' hair was looking good. He plays cello and guitar, and Louise says: "He had the perfect hair for a rock star."
And for a wig.
Not for a child, as it turned out, but for his mother.
In January, during her annual checkup, Louise's doctor found a lump (肿块) on her breast. On Valentine's Day, she had a lumpectomy (乳房肿瘤切除术). Two weeks later, she had a hysterectomy (子宫切除). Six weeks after that, she started chemotherapy (化疗).
Louise, 49, knew she'd lose her hair. Ah, yes, her hair. The hair she'd always "had a lot of fun with".
But she also knew that, despite all the ways she had worn it and the reasons she had enjoyed it, in the end it was hair. Just hair.
And if getting treatment that could cure her cancer meant she'd lose her hair in the process, that was a small price to pay.
Instead of losing it in clumps from chemotherapy, she decided to shave her head. And though that is a choice many patients make, she took hers a step further: She asked her son to go bald with her.
She may have been joking initially (最初). But the two are close, and he didn't have to think about it much before saying yes. They decided to combine his hair and hers into a hairpiece.
So, one morning this spring, mother and son went to a hairdresser. Within minutes, their hair was in ponytails (马尾辫) but no longer attached to their heads. They looked at each other in the mirror and rubbed (摩擦) each other's scalps (头皮). "Your head feels just like mine!" Augustus told her.
Louise dropped off Augustus, now bald, at school. "When I picked him up, it was a great day," Louise says. "Everybody was sitting outside their cars, waiting for their kids. I saw him come out of the building and thought, ‘Oh, my gosh.'"
His hair has started growing back while hers is at a standstill (停止), which frustrates him a little.
"He wants to do something," Louise says. "He's always trying to lift my spirits."
Although they have always been close, the relationship has changed.
"About the time we shaved our heads, he became a different kid," she says. "He's very solicitous (担心的). He rides his bike to church if I don't go. His level of independence (独立) has really been helpful."
Augustus says: "Now, we can say we have matching hairdos, and it puts me in her shoes."
Augustus says: "Now, we can say we have matching hairdos, and it puts me in her shoes."
Their ponytails are still in a plastic bag (塑料袋), waiting to be made into a wig. Louise pulls them out, fluffs (抖松) them a little. She's an optimist (乐天派). She views losing her hair as liberating (解脱的); she can roll down the car windows and there's no hair in her face.
别用翻译器.. 句子不完整..
But when she stops talking for a moment to think about what Augustus did — an 11-year-old boy, shaving the beautiful hair he'd been growing for almost three years because she needed him — she gets a little emotional.
"Him doing this makes me cry," she says. "I'm like, ‘Wow!'"