My reflection

I met a bunch of my mom friends for a play date today.

There is this great indoor play space in Portland that serves good coffee, has comfortable seating, and enough to occupy the kids for HOURS.

I like to get there pretty early, grab a cozy spot, read the paper and ignore the Eikenkids.

This was working really well for me today, I think I had just finished the  Sunday Styles section when I noticed my reflection.

Sitting about 20 feet away was a young(er) woman, white knit slouchy hat, nerdy glasses, dark eyebrows.

And I just knew.

We were eventually standing next to each other, and I complemented her hat.

"It is a cute way to cover my bald head" she said.

I reached into my bag to pull it my own white knit slouchy hat and said, "I still haven't let go of mine."

What followed was a deeply personal and meaningful conversation that can only be had by two people who have lived parallel lives.

Her name is Lucy(!), she is 40, this is her 2nd go round with breast cancer.  She just finished her final round of chemo and was giving her husband a break that day by getting the kids out of the house for a few hours.

Later when my sister arrived she told me she started walking in her direction, thinking it was me.

It took her a few moments to remember that we were all finished with that nonsense, that now when I wear my knit cap it is to try and contain the head of Shirley Temple curls sprouting from my head.

Heal and Deal