My Evie Cuts My Hair and Shares a Prayer

 Evelyn oh Evelyn what a gift to share our lives over the past thirty years. Evelyn has been cutting my hair and my families hair for three decades. But I don’t only go in her sweet shop for her scissors. She is a prayer partner, a joke sharer, a truth giver and my friend. 

I began taking my four littles to Evelyn when Natalie was one. Her shop charged 4.95 in those days. Might I add that the price is only 8.95 today. So I would march my troop in and get five haircuts for less than I might pay for mine alone elsewhere. Quickly, my kids became her kids. She even made nine year old Natalie angry when she wouldn’t give her a perm since we were just starting the pool season of summer. Evelyn cut my Mom’s hair and they had a beautiful bond. Mom would always wait to get her hair cut till she came to visit from Arizona if she could. 

Once Teri, Mom and I got haircuts then spent the day playing in Santa Fe. Somehow we lost Mom’s hearing aids. So we called Evie and she looked but couldn’t find them. We searched some more and decided to drive back and check at her shop. Evie quickly pointed out that they were in fact right in Mom’s ears where they belonged. She just needed to turn them back on. 

Tanner locked my keys in the car and we quietly (I jest) waited in her shop for the tow truck. When Ryan was missing for two weeks in Minnesota, Evie and I prayed. I walked out to my car and Ryan called. The power of two praying Mama’s shouldn’t be a surprise to us. It broke my heart when she lost her precious Mama and then years later when her heart was crushed at the loss of her sweet grandgirl. We grieved over Ryan and each of our losses. But we also laugh and share the triumphs of life as it unfolds. 

Some days Ron wonders why I need a haircut again so soon. Perhaps it is I need an infusion of hope and connection with my Evie. By the way, once I went in and she wasn’t there. I desperately needed a haircut for reals this time. So her coworker cut my hair. When I got home Ron asked why Evelyn wasn’t at the shop. He immediately knew that she was not the one who cut my hair. She keeps me loved and looking like Barbara. She can’t ever retire or I will just be coming to her kitchen to get my Evie fix as well as her perfect cut.

In Him,

Joyful