A Broken Promise And A Crown Of Glory

As long as I can remember, my mother always had gray hair. I can remember when I was just a little girl she had gray hair. It was more gray than brown at least in my memories.
It was until I was in my thirties that I saw a picture of my mother with brown hair. I couldn't believe it. She looked so young.
It is often very difficult for children to imagine their parents as teenagers and even young adults. So the pictures were a treasure for me. After she had passed away I went through the photo albums that she had left behind. There she was, dressed in a sailor outfit with short hair. Look at that beautiful young woman still in her teens I believe. She was just stylin' on my dad's roadster. She did have dark brown/auburn hair. No wonder my dad fell in love with her. She was a beautiful woman.
As the years of hard work, the trauma of losing two of her daughters and of course, age, took it's toll. Her hair had turned almost completely white.
In their later years my folks had gotten to a stage of life that struggling financially was not a factor. They had gotten to the point that afforded my mother the opportunity to go to the beauty shop on a regular basis. I always thought that she was proud of her sparkly white hair. It was her crown of glory in my mind.
That was not the case in her mind, however. When she got to be in her eighties she said to me, "I want you to make me a promise. Always color your hair. You have such beautiful brown hair. I would hate to see it grow gray before your years." I, of course, promised my mother that I would do that for her. I never really gave it much thought. As time went by, my hair also started to turn gray. I remembered the promise that I made to my mother. I couldn't afford a beauty shop on a regular basis either, so I colored it at home or at a friend's or family's house. It was fun. When I could afford to go to the beauty shop as the years went by I had my hair colored.
Then one day as I looked in the mirror I silently said, "I'm so sorry, Mom, but I am going to break the promise I made to you so many years ago. I am going to let my hair be naturally gray."
 My hair was a dark brown like my father's as well as hers as a child and as a young adult. Then of course, as the years accumulated, it seemed to lighten to a dark blonde. Now it is a very light gray just as I remembered my mother's used to be when I was a child.
I can only hope that someday I will see my hair turn into a beautiful crown of glory; pure white just exactly like my mother's.