46 Mommas

Crystal with her brother, Cole, who was diagnosed with childhood cancer at the age of 8.

One of the most powerful memories I have about my brother is how much we liked each other’s hair — mine was long and smooth, and his was short and fuzzy due to regular buzz cuts. He would always say how mine was the softest and silkiest in the entire world, and I would rub my hand over his fuzz, saying how nice and fuzzy his head was.

After he was diagnosed and put into treatment, parts of his hair fell out. The parts that stayed he grew long and curly to hide the bald spots that embarrassed me, even though they weren’t even mine.

My brother Cole was just 8 years old when he was diagnosed with DIPG, a type of childhood brain cancer that starts in the brain stem. He was sick for about a year until he passed away in 2006, when I was 11.

A lot about that time does not make any sense, and it made even less sense back then. But I knew I had to do something to fight against the disease that stole my brother away from life.

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Rebekah with her daughter, Grace, after shaving with the 46 Mommas to raise money for pediatric oncology research. Grace was diagnosed with medulloblastoma when she was 5 years old.

Knocked up and bald.

That’ll be me this month when I shave as a 46 Momma for the fourth time.

I shaved in LA in 2010, then in DC in 2011, and back in LA in 2012 — in honor of my 11-year-old daughter, Grace, who was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of childhood cancer, in 2007.

Grace is thriving. She copes with the many complex side effects of the cancer treatment, some days better than others.  Her newest therapy — daily hormone shots to (we hope) allow her to grow to a normal adult height without additional side effects — is the lowlight of her day.

Grace has been with me at each shave. She and her sister Fiona, 15, have been supportive of the shaving zaniness. They understand the need for awareness, the value of funding research for better treatments, and, of course, how cool a shaved head feels.

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The first 46 Mommas St. Baldrick’s event in 2010.

Tiffany’s daughter, Miranda, in 2007, shortly before she was diagnosed with childhood cancer; Miranda during treatment.

As the months of treatment passed, just getting through each day was challenging: Miranda’s body didn’t process all the antibiotics she got to help fight infection, her kidneys took a serious beating, she stopped eating, didn’t tolerate a feeding tube in her nose. I watched as my daughter’s little body shrank smaller and smaller as she lost one-third of her weight. I feared that the chemo fighting the cancer was going to kill her instead.

It was hard for to me rejoice when the doctor told me that, after three rounds of chemo, the tumor had shrunk by 75%, because I felt my baby was dying before my eyes.

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I remember the summer of 2011 in two parts. The first is filled with zoo visits, birthday parties, hot days at the beach, soccer, and looking forward to pre-K. The second half began on August 5, the day my son Max was diagnosed with brain cancer.

As Max was shuttled into brain surgery, we texted close friends and family, unable or unwilling to actually speak with anyone, and my friend, Diana responded right away. She became a constant source of comfort.

After Max came home from the hospital, Diana and her daughters visited for a play date. While the kids played, I showed Diana a hat I bought for Max – he was just starting to lose his hair. It was a light bulb moment, a fortuitous chance encounter. Diana is a leader in the headwear apparel industry and that day, we decided to make headwear to help kids fighting cancer. MaxLove was born at the kitchen counter.

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When Votre Vu founders Harold Zimmerman and Ann Brodette were approached in 2011 to support the St. Baldrick’s Foundation’s 46 Momma’s Shave for the Brave (a group of moms of kids with cancer who were shaving their heads in honor of the 46 children who are diagnosed with cancer every weekday), they jumped at the chance.

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