After the death of her mother, Margaret Renkl tenderly placed in an antique jar the "soft white hair" left behind in her mother's hairbrush. Years passed. When it no longer carried the scent she cherished, Renkl laid the hair across a holly branch in her yard.
This act was meant as a direct invitation to the birds in her yard, and it was accepted: A chickadee flew off with the hair for the nest she was building.
