My favorite shoe store, Clementine, has an amazing annual sale featuring odds and ends from the year’s assortment of styles. I always try to stop by on the first day, when there might actually be some size 9s on the shelves.
I found a pair and headed for the checkout line. In front of me was a woman with gorgeous tattoos of cherry blossoms and other flowers peeking out from the neckline of her tank top and extending down her arms. As I admired them, I noticed a little pink ribbon at the nape of her neck, almost completely hidden by her long, curly red hair.
Marguerite got the tattoo when she lost her hair to chemotherapy, figuring it would be visible until her hair grew back to cover it, a sign that treatment really was over. She didn’t remember exactly what the symbols meant, but they had significance at the time.
I only spent a few minutes talking with her but it was clear, five years later, that this tattoo had served its intended purpose.
Thank you, Marguerite, for letting a stranger take a picture and share part of your story.
