Two women sat together on the Number 10 bus. The sky had opened up and a hard, gray rain was pelting the earth. Both sat there, wet from standing at their respective uncovered bus stations. One looked at the other and said, “Bad hair day, eh?”
The other women, a woman who looked to be in her 70’s, just smiled and said nothing.
The first lady, who was probably 30, said, “tough economy out there.”
Her older seat mate just smiled and said, “Yup.”
The first lady was now getting frustrated. Trying to start a conversation with her seat mate was like trying to start a wet campfire. She kept throwing scraps on conversation on the pile and lighting them, only to get one-word answers.
“My car is broken down. I had to ride the bus this morning. You ride the bus often?” She knew the answer before her seat mate said it.
“Yup.”
“Did you watch the State of the Union speech last night? Our country is going to Hell in a hand basket.”
Her seat mate looked at the much younger woman and said, “Things are tough all over.”
The young woman felt satisfied that the older woman was coming around and starting to complain with her. Misery loves company.
Both sat in silence for a couple of blocks and watched as the world outside scurried around in the pouring rain. The younger woman tried again.
“I hope this rain stops. My hair gets so frizzy when it gets wet. It totally annoys me.” The bus began to brake at the next stop and the older woman stood up.
She looked down at her younger seat mate and took off her wig, revealing her bald head. “This is my stop. It’s the hospital and I’m being treated for Stage IV Breast Cancer. The treatment is hard and the doctors don’t think I have much of a chance of survival. But I believe I will beat it. I intend to die on my own terms. You’re a beautiful young woman so let me give you some advice: In my world, there is no such thing as a bad hair day. You will be much happier if you believed that, too.”
And with that, she nodded and walked off the bus. The younger woman just sat there stunned as she watched the bald woman walk proudly into the hospital’s front door.
Oh, my goodness!!! This reminds me so much of my precious
sister during her 14 year battle against breast cancer. No complaints & dared
me to bring “downers” into her day! Shery taught me to
“change the channel” when negative thoughts began flowing out
of my mouth! I’m still practicing because I lose my “remote” too often!
Thank you for reminding to tether my remote in honor of my precious sister!
A great lesson that I need to remember daily.
One word – WOW!