Elgin sisters cut hair out of respect for grandma
It sure wasn't a typical haircut for Maggie Sherman, 11, and her 8-year-old sister Rachel.
It was out of respect for their grandmother Nancy Luczak, that the two Elgin girls recently shed their waist-length locks that will be turned into wigs for cancer patients.
Luczak, 61, of Cary, is a two-year breast cancer survivor and lost her hair after undergoing radiation and chemotherapy.
"I don't think they understood the severity of cancer and possibility of dying and everything, they just knew it was a bad thing," Luczak said.
She donned a wig until her hair grew back and says the hairpiece drew a mixed response from her young granddaughters.
While Maggie was curious enough to reach under her grandma's wig in public and ask if other people wanted to pet the peach fuzz that grew all over her face, the hairpiece totally "freaked out" Rachel, according to their mother Dana.
"I got really scared because I wasn't used to her having bald hair," Rachel said.
Luczak's battle with cancer involved and required the entire family's support - her daughter Dana and granddaughters Maggie and Rachel, Luczak's husband Brian, her son-in-law Dan Sherman and her grandsons Eric and Kevin Sherman all stood by her side.
Dana Sherman still remembers shaving off what was left of her mother's hair.
"It was pretty much a shock," she said.
Maggie had actually donated 14 inches of hair for charity five years earlier after reading a magazine article.
But this time, her grandma's ordeal gave her a whole new meaning of what the act meant, where the hair was going and inspired her to sit under the scissors a second time.
"Now I know what it looks like and my grandma told me how it feels like, so I have more experience," Maggie said.
Her kid sister Rachel was both excited and nervous.
"I've never had my hair cut before," she said.
The deed was done at the Hair Place in South Elgin on Aug. 22, the day after Maggie turned 11.
Mom and grandma were there to see it all.
Luczak says it means the world to her that her grandchildren are sacrificing their vanity out of respect for her.
"I think it's wonderful; I think it's absolutely wonderful," she said.
Mom Dana agreed.
"I'm just excited and I'm proud of them and I'm just glad my mom's OK," she said. "I just feel blessed that she's here and that she's healthy and that we're all together."