On the left is a recent photo of the Teleodaughter shown with two cousins and quite a bit of hair. There was a time when she had neither cousins nor hair. On a family trip when she was only a few months old we stopped at a fast food restaurant for a bathroom break and a snack. I was spooning some sort of messy goo into her mouth while the wife took her older brother, a toddler, to the bathroom. A gentleman walked by and saw me feeding the baby. He noticed that neither of us had much hair and he wanted to make smalltalk."That boy sure looks like you" he said, guessing the wrong gender for the infant in the unisex baby garb. I thought for a minute and nodded. "Maybe so," I said " but it is a resemblance we hope she will come to outgrow."
There will be an opportunity next week to see if I was right, without the confounding factor of her having more hair now and me scarcely any. The Teleodaughter will be having her head shaved to raise funds for the St Baldrick's Foundation, an organization that funds research and fellowships for children's cancer. If you follow the link it will take you to her page on the St. Baldrick's Foundation web site where she put this dedication:
One individual who had a great impact on my life was a child with cancer, my cousin Walker. Walker was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor as an infant, when I was myself just 7 or 8 years old. He far outlived expectations but did eventually succumb to the cancer. One would expect that his brief life was not a happy one. But that's not what I remember about Walker. What I remember is a little boy with an infectious smile who delighted in "scaring" his older relatives with a toy bug. Walker taught me to appreciate life. If he could get so much pleasure out of his short life, I think the rest of us have the responsibility to get at least as much out of ours. And we have the responsibility to help children like Walker have the opportunity to keep enjoying life.
She has set her goal as raising $1000 and still has a few hundred to go. If you would like to make a donation you can do so at her St. Baldrick's page and help her reach her goal. And for those of you who are local to the area and would like to come by for the event and make a donation in person, it will be Saturday, March 8th at the Hibernian Pub in Cary, North Carolina.
