“Wow. It looks great. How bold,” he says as he gestures toward her head. “I love that you shaved your head. What made you decide to do it?” Adrienne looks the bus boy in the eye. “I have cancer.”

Adrienne’s favorite photo of herself; she thought she looked like an elegant mannequin. Make-A-Wish Day © August 28, 2001

Better Off Bald chronicles my sister Adrienne’s 147-day battle with liver cancer; the book also shows how I reared Adrienne from the time she was eight until she died at the age of fifteen. For more information about primary liver cancer, go to Blue Faery: The Adrienne Wilson Liver Cancer Association.