When a middle school teacher vowed not to shave until Osama bin Laden was caught following the terror attacks, he thought it would only be a matter of months. So when Gary Weddle (50) found out the al-Qaeda leader was dead, he was probably more happy than most. In almost 10 years the science teacher from Ephrata, Washington, had managed to grow a grizzled beard that reached his chest.
Parting with his hair: Gary Weddle rushed in and shaved on his itchy
friend which he had for the last 10 years.
He certainly could have joined band ZZ Top and ironically bore a resemblance to Bin Laden himself. "I spent my first five minutes crying and then I couldn't get it off fast enough," said Weddle. Unsurprisingly Weddle's wife Donita was also rather relieved to be able to see a bit more of her husband's face. "He looks 10 years younger," she said. "It's a very happy moment for us. It's a very happy moment for the whole nation." Weddle had been working in his garden on Sunday evening when a colleague called to tell him the news.
Sceptical at first Weddle turned on the news and then when it had sunk in rushed to the bathroom to hack away at the itchy creation. Friends and neighbours even headed over to his house to watch the symbolic moment. And yesterday Weddle's school principal Jill Palmquist honoured him, telling students they should admire the teacher for sticking to his vow not to shave for 3,454 days.
But he had made a vow and was going to stick to it even if special forces had never captured the terrorist.
In 2003 Weddle had said, "If they want to shave it off my body in the coffin, they can, but I'm going to hang onto it... I'm not going to forget and I'm not going to let anyone forget."
3,454 Number of days Gary Weddle went unshaven
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