An act of caring and love

Morgan Koder, the daughter of Elaine and Brett Koder, is 16 and has the most beautiful long curly hair, which falls at her waist. Morgan was having surgery and didn’t want to cut her hair. The doctor told them they could wash her hair 48 hours after the surgery.

Elaine was going to try and wash Morgan's hair herself using one of the sinks at Salon Palazzo. But when beautician Virginia Deal saw Morgan's hair, she knew it was going to take a miracle.

About 2 inches down from the incision on Morgan’s scalp was a baseball-size matted mess of hair, Betadine and dried blood. Virginia along with Ann McCraw, Susan Brown (owner), Libby Davis, Candace Davis and Bambi Tessner made it their mission to save Morgan's hair.

"In between every client Virginia had and every client that everyone else had, they came and worked on Morgan’s hair," Elaine said. "Anytime anyone had a spare moment they worked on her hair. They kept working the matte down lower."

In all they spent 7 hours on Morgan's hair, getting the matte down far enough that they could cut it out and blend it in with the rest of Morgan’s hair.

"I offered to pay them, but they wouldn’t take any money," Elaine said. "Susan (Brown, the owner) said, ‘You’re like family and we wanted to do this for you.’"
Those women are one of the many reasons Elaine is glad to call Shelby home.

"When I came home that exhausting day, I thought about those six women and their compassion and commitment — that is the heart and soul of this town. It is infectious. It makes you want to be that way. It was an incredible gift for them to give to my daughter as they did," Elaine said.

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