I could see it in her eyes. Sad. Feelings of hopelessness. And, her hair had gone gray . . it was her natural color after all these years, but she had dyed it black through the years, because it made her feel good. And, at her best through all those years, she was a force to be reckoned with . . smart, hard-working, and with vision. My mom was really something.
But, now, after the death of my father she was despondent. I came back to visit every three months to help her. One day it started improving. And, after awhile, she recovered. One day her hair was jet black, and she was off to learn classical Japanese dance. A whirlwind once more.
Years later, she said that I should tint my hair because it was going gray . . and, in our family, gray came early. I was still young! How early can gray come anyway? Well, pretty early I guess. It was a mixture of brown, gray and white.
And, one day I took her advice. She was right. It did make me feel better!