My battle with cancer was a long and a tiring one, but I had my people around me, and I ended up winner. The day I got my “cancer-free” diagnosis, my boyfriends proposed and we decided to have our wedding as soon as possible.

But on what was supposed to be the best day of my life, my mother-in-law tried to humiliate me in front of everyone in attendance. She was well-aware my hair didn’t grow enough for the wedding and that I had a wig, but she wanted everyone to know that little secret of mine. Out of the blue, she came up and ripped off my wig, revealing my bald head to the entire room. “See? She’s bald! I told you!” she yelled in front of the guests.

All of a sudden, my wedding turned into a nighmare.

I stood there in the church, shocked and surrounded by whispers and stares, feeling completely exposed. And then, something happened that no one expected, something that made my mother-in-law instantly regret what she had done.

Although she believed she had won, her moment of victory was short-lived.

My friend Sarah came to my rescue. Her bold move and her words broke through the tension. She was with me through my battle with cancer, and she now saved my wedding. “How dare you humiliate someone who has already battled so hard to stand here today?” she said, and her words echoed in the church.

Before long, many of the guests joined in, and not only my friends and relatives, by my husband’s family, too. “You’re beautiful just the way you are,” someone said, while another added, “She’s a survivor, and that’s more than admirable.”

My husband was angry at his mother. “Mom, how can be so cruel to someone that means the world to me. You owe her an apology,” he told his mother, who at that moment realized that she was the villain in our story.

It was obvious that she was embarrassed by what she did to me. She obviously believed that our guests would laugh at me and my bald head, but she couldn’t be more wrong. Everyone there was so compassionate that it brought tears to my eyes.

Her action, however, no matter how cruel it was, helped me understand that my hair, or better said the lack of it, didn’t define who I was. From feeling ashamed, I suddenly felt liberated and decided to continue with the wedding without the wig on. It was who I was and I loved myself for my bravery.

My husband and I walked down the aisle into our new life together.