Sarah contemplates her reflection. Suddenly, it seems this hair is restoring the things she has lost. Her strength, her dignity, her determination, the things that made her the woman she was. Sarah, proud and beautiful. Suddenly she feels ready. She turns to the woman and asks if she can shave her head completely. She wants to do it, right there, right now. She can wear the wig from today. She’s not ashamed to go back home looking like this. And she’ll be able to fit it on better without any hair underneath, it will be easier. It will have to be done sooner or later, at any rate, so she might as well get on with it now, here: she feels strong enough to do it today.

The woman agrees. Armed with a razor, her expert hands carry out the task gently, and swiftly.

When Sarah opens her eyes, she stares in surprise for a moment. Newly shaven, her head looks smaller than before. She looks like her daughter at one year old, before her hair had grown. That’s it – she looks like a baby. She tries to imagine her children’s reaction – they will be surprised to see her like this. She will show them one day, perhaps. Later.

Or not.

She places the wig over her smooth scalp, using the technique the woman has shown her, then adjusts her new hair. Gazing at her reflection in the glass, Sarah knows one thing: she is going to live. She will see her children grow up. She will see them become adolescents, and adults, and parents. More than anything, she wants to know what their likes and dislikes will be, their talents and skills, their aptitudes, their loves. She will accompany them though life, be the attentive, tender, benevolent mother at their side.

She will win this fight, drained and exhausted, perhaps, but still standing. No matter how many months or years of treatment it takes, from now on she will devote all her energy, every minute, every second, to fighting this illness body and soul.

Never again will she be Sarah Cohen the powerful, confident woman that so many people admired. Never again will she be the invincible super-woman. She will be herself, Sarah, a woman who has been dealt a low blow by life, but she will be there, with her scars, and faults, and wounds. She won’t try to hide them anymore. Her past life had been a lie, this life will be real.