Good things happen at the mall…

Today I finally got out and about and went to the mall with Nicole, Michelle and my sister-in-law Kaytie. As I was walking out of a store, a man was smiling so broadly and kindly at me. He called me over to give me a hug…he was also bald and told me to continue to wear my bald head proudly and that I wore it well! He was so sweet! Next, we walked into Williams and Sonoma and while Michelle was paying for something, Nicole, Kaytie and I walked to a couch outside to sit down and wait. As we sat there, a woman walking by smiled at me, stopped, pointed at her head and said “This is what it looks like growing out!” I jumped up and gave her the biggest hug and thanked her for sharing this with me, she is a breast cancer survivor. She literally brought tears to my eyes! It is so inspiring to meet cancer survivors, especially now that I know what the battle is all about. These two strangers made my day. Until you look different, in my case, bald, you really have no idea how people look at you. I see people stare at me, look away from me, laugh at me, send sad eyes at me and smile at me. The smiles are the best. The next time you see someone that looks different, send a smile, it feels really good.

As we were driving home, I got a call from Billie who was on her way to her internship with the Hillary Clinton campaign in Des Moines. She told me that someone had just walked into the Hillary office in New Hampshire, was holding hostages and had a bomb. When she got to the Des Moines office, their office went on lock-down and after a while she was escorted out of the building and was able to go home. We are so happy she made it home safely. It is unfortunate that someone would threaten lives because of a different point of view.

So, today was a good day! Billie is okay and the kindness of strangers went a long way!