After a fun but exhausting weekend away, followed by an evening flight and a late drive home from the airport, I arrived to find two cards in my mailbox (among magazines and junk mail).  This was one of them.  I didn’t recognize the handwriting on the envelope, so I hadn’t a clue who it could be from.  It was a gigantic surprise to open the envelope and find a card from my mom’s hairstylist.

C has been cutting and styling my mom’s hair since before I can remember.  She does my mom’s friends’ hair too, and she used to do mine before I moved away.  I always loved her beauty shop – pink and girly, and smelling wonderful from the delicious products she used.  The best part of any haircut from C was when she would play with my hair after cutting it.  I never looked better than on a day when C had her hands in my hair.  (Of course, I went steeply downhill the next day, but that was due to my own laziness.  And C’s haircuts kept better than most.)

In the card, C shared her memory of the first day when I came into her beauty shop, a barely walking baby, and “proceeded to read her a story from one of my favorite books.”  Yep, that sounds like me.  I certainly got a fair amount of reading done while waiting for my mom to get her hair done.

Getting this card put a huge smile on my face.  I had no idea that C still thought of me so fondly – although it makes sense that my mom would fill her in on the things that are going on in my life during their regular appointments.  I’ve read the card over and over and it feels like a big hug from someone special.  Best kind of surprise a girl can find in her mailbox.