My mother never liked my wife. She thought she was too outspoken, too independent, and not the kind of woman who belonged in our family. They stayed polite, but there was always tension between them.

This year, my wife began chemotherapy and lost her hair. Wanting her to know she wasn’t facing it alone, I shaved my head too. It felt like a small way to stand beside her during the hardest time of her life.

When my mother heard about it, she was angry. She called it dramatic and said the situation wasn’t about me. We argued, and eventually stopped speaking for a while.

Then last week, she arrived at our door without warning. She walked in, removed her scarf, and revealed that she had shaved her own head. Looking at my wife, she said, “You shouldn’t be the only one doing this alone,” before pulling her into a hug. In that moment, all the distance between them disappeared—and I couldn’t hold back my tears.