The title is misleading. Miss Donna has not cut my mother’s hair for fifty years. But she has been involved with my mother’s haircutting for that long. Miss Donna was 22 and my mother 45. At the time, Mom had her hair cut by a man at the salon where Donna worked. He was chronically late. Mom HATES late. One day when her appointment time passed and he still wasn’t there, Miss Donna said to her, “Let’s just get it done.” By the time he arrived, Mom had a new hairdresser. He was history.

My mother has gone to that beauty parlor weekly for my adult life. It is part of her sustenance. A clock hangs on the wall of Donna’s that my mother gave her as a gift when they moved into a new space. Donna has gifts at her house that Mom has brought her from around the world.

These days, Mesha cuts Mom’s hair. Mesha is the newest employee at the salon. She’s only been there 8 years. (Rose, who did Rebecca’s manicure/pedicure, has been there 35.) Mom has a husband and wife housekeeping team, Keena and Dimitri. Keena is Mesha’s mother-in-law. May as well keep it all in the family!

In the late 1970s, my father fought cancer for a few years then died in 1979. Donna came to the house to cut my father’s hair when he was too weak and sick to go out … and never charged Mom for the service.

Donna vividly remembers the day in 1980 when my mother met her second husband, Herman. “On Saturday mornings,” Donna told Rebecca and me, “Shirley would always take our orders, go to a take-out restaurant, and bring us breakfast. When she was here, we would all eat, and she would just cry. Then one Saturday, we all wanted something different to eat, so she went to a new restaurant. When she returned…” Donna grinned and started mimicking Mom by walking on her toes… “your mother had a smile on her face, walked like she was on air, and announced, ‘I just ran into an old friend.'”   Mom and Herman married a year later and stayed married 16 years before he ran out of steam too. She is still going strong!

It’s funny. I know I have met Donna before, but I don’t really remember. Nevertheless, we are very good old friends!