I cut it off, sweetheart. It was just too hot. Do you like my new hairstyle?

— Yes, — I said after a pause, — but now you look like dad.

Back then, I didn’t know that her hair had fallen out because of the “chemo” — the treatment that had saved her life, at least for a while.

But there was something else strange. When mom started taking me to school again, I noticed how people on the street, on the bus, even my classmates, looked at her in a weird way. Some turned away, some whispered, and some even took pictures of her on their phones.

I didn’t understand why. Maybe they just didn’t like her haircut.