kilted inspiration

[NewGuise]

The Alberta Cancer Foundation publishes a magazine called Leap, which this month featured an inspiring story about a very briefly married couple; one picture tha accompanies the article (both in the online and more extensive print version) shows the bride and kilted groom on a snow-covered mountaintop.

But it's the story that matters here, more than the kilt. See http://myleapmagazine.ca/2010/12/higher-love/

[Macman]

That's a beautiful story, Garrett. Very sad, but very beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

[BoldHighlander]

A very moving story....thanks for sharing it.

[NewGuise]

Tomorrow morning at 10am, Edmonton time, I will lose all my hair. In a kilt.

Two years ago, facing the end of my term as Chair of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, I started growing out my hair for the first time in 20 years. I am now Interim Chair of Modern Languages and Cultural Studies (a position that is keeping me too busy to spend much time on this forum), and my hair is now as long as it was in the 1970s. It is time to lose my interim hairstyle.

My daughter, who convinced me to grow my hair again in the first place, will be shaving my head in the lobby of the building where I now work. We are expecting a crowd, but personally I will be thinking more of my father, and of several other family members and friends who died of cancer, than of anyone present.

Some who plan to be there, though, really wanted me to wear a kilt for the event. I didn't like the idea, worrying about getting hair on the kilt, but then I remembered that I have a casual leather kilt that should work for the purpose, so that is now the plan. Unfortunately, the recent balmy weather (by Canadian prairie standards) has again given way to real cold: -20C with wind is quite bearable in a woolen kilt, in my experience, but ... not leather. So I may have to change clothes in my office!

So far I have managed to raise over $5000 for what I am calling the "[C]hair loss" fundraiser, for Edmonton's Cross Cancer Institute - an excellent research and treatment centre, associated with the University of Alberta. My hair will be donated for wigs.

I have a facebook page where I plan to post pictures, or rather to let others do so, so feel free to visit ... or even head over to the linked page and make a donation, if you are feeling generous.

[CMcG]

That is surely not just a good, but a great cause.

I hope you raise lots of money! Make sure you have some appropriate headgear for getting home safe and warm without your locks...

[NewGuise]

Done. Bald. Cool-headed.

Before (with my daughter):



... and after:

[Macman]

Fantastic, Garrett! It's great that you raised so much money, and that your hair will go to a good cause as well. I had all my hair cut off when my dad had chemo, but I didn't make as big a sacrifice as you! Well done!