Our Daughter Has Red Hair

Three days ago Sylvia and I called our daughter Cheryl Lee in Lyford, Texas. It was her birthday and together we recalled that momentous day when she was born. I say momentous, because we already had two sons and in those days did not know ahead of time what sex this next baby would be. When the nurse came out to announce to me that my wife had given birth to a daughter I was, to say the least, ecstatic.

And then she said something else that made it even more special. She said our baby daughter had a full head of RED hair. Neither of our boys had red hair, but Cheryl Lee did. I simply could not believe it.

By the way, please know that I was not permitted to be present for the birth. In 1960 that was considered woman's work and dads were relegated to the waiting rooms.

Cheryl Lee said something about her red hair in our conversation this week. "Did you know," she asked, "that both parents have to carry the red hair gene before the baby can be born with that color?" We both admitted that we were not aware of that fact. We now know that less than 4% of the human population has red hair. National Geographic also says that red hair can be traced back to prehistoric Britain. Scotland, Wales and Australia have more redheads than any other places on earth.

Our daughter's comments led, of course, into a discussion about the fact that Sylvia's mother had red hair and I had a red beard when I was younger. So we concluded that it was only natural that our daughter should have this beautiful red/auburn hair. I can trace my heritage back to Great Britain on my mother's side. My wife's background goes to Germany and Switzerland. Who knows what mysteries led to our daughter's red hair?

And who knows what mysteries lurk in the gene pool of any of us? All this is a fascinating topic that is surfacing in our day. Ultimately, I believe we're all traceable back to a common ancestral family. Cheryl Lee's red hair certainly got us to thinking about all those thousands of people in our backgrounds who passed on that tiny gene. And then came that wondrous day when that little girl with red hair became a member of our family.