Let it grow, then let it go

DEARHELOISE » A thought for individuals: Donate your hair to cancer patients. Just do a simple search of “donate hair,” and you’ll get several websites with information and instructions. Basically, they want either a ponytail or braid that’s 10 to 12 inches long of clean, not chemically treated, hair.

— Margaret, Los Angeles Margaret, this is an excellent way to give, especially since many of us have let our hair grow during the pandemic. At Cancer.net we found some guidelines:

* Choose where to send your hair. Organizations may have different processes, so choose one you are comfortable with.

* Familiarize yourself with the donation requirements. For example, find out the minimum length they accept or whether they accept chemically treated hair, etc.

* Find out if you can donate from home, or what instructions you and your hairstylist must follow.

I love the way my readers keep finding ways to help those in need, keeping the giving spirit alive no matter what goes on around us.

Heloise

Family history

DEARHELOISE » Now in my 80s, I recall early years when I had little interest in family history. Today, I would treasure finding any information about previous generations. People should take a long-range view of their family history and preserve letters, notes and documents that would give some insight into the lives our forbearers lived. Someone a generation or more in the future will find such information priceless! Keep notes! Label photographs! — Robert Chagnon, Martinsburg,

W.V. Robert, I agree with you. We see smiling faces of family members, but to people who never met them they are strangers. So many important events are lost if no onemakes a note of it to pass on to the next generation.

Graduates

DEARHELOISE » How about the slew of graduation announcements arriving from kids you have never met who obviously have hijacked their parents’ address book looking for loot? Even worse, announcements arriving in a parent’s handwriting. This bank is closed, especially when no thank you note is sent!

— Overdrawn Godmother, via email

Greeting cards

DEARHELOISE » I have found keeping a box of stationary or a supply of blank greeting cards to be helpful. At times I do not have the time to shop for a get well, sympathy or other type of greeting card. This way, I am able to write a more personal note or enclose a donation or memorial check to someone’s memory. There are so many fabulous cards, but at times we just don’t have the time to shop. Love your column in the Omaha World Herald.

— Alice, Lincoln, Neb. Alice, I do the same thing, or when I see a beautiful or comical card, I might buy it even if I don’t know of someone’s birthday at the moment. When a birthday comes along, I already have a nice card to send.