Hope is the Thing with Feathers- and No Hair...
I spent Thursday with my sister and brother-in-law at the medical center where she is being treated for the return of her cancer. As usual, I had pad and pen with me; as usual, the images which surrounded me found their way into words. Sitting in the waiting room at the gynecological oncology center, surrounded by women in various stages of cancer treatment, I feel like a voyeur, healthy woman that I am. In the corner sits an Asian woman- Japanese, perhaps- whose head is covered by a yellow scarf to conceal her baldness, a result of her chemotherapy. At the other end of the room, her equally-bald "sister" celebrates her hairlessness with a bright turquoise knitted cap, while the woman to her left is wearing a tasteful blond wig, only made obvious by her total lack of eyebrows. On my far left, two women are engaged in loud, animated conversation, perhaps to conceal the nervousness of the one waiting to be called into the infusion room? And nearby, still an...