.
LONDON, England /
The Daily Mail / World News / September 3, 2009
By Eddie Wrenn
It was an epic 30-year mission of personal growth involving many twists and turns. But for the woman who grew her fingernails to a record-breaking 28ft (about 8.5 metres), it all came to a shattering end when a car-crash wiped out all that non-nail-biting work in a moment. Despite pleas from her great-grandchildren to 'glue them back on', Lee Redmond, of Salt Lake City, Utah is resigned to a life of comparatively normal nails, with her current nails measuring 'just' 4.5inches.
Crash: Lee Redmond lost her record-breaking nails in an accident in February
Speaking for the first time about the loss of her nails, which happened in the crash in February, Ms Redmond (born February 2, 1941) said the crash was 'the most dramatic' event in her life.
But in a philosophical musing, she added: 'There's more to life than nails.'
Lee's fingernails had not been cut since 1979, but it all came to an end when she suffered serious injuries in a collision with another car at a cross-roads.
She added: 'I think it was my grandson that said:
"Grandma, they are like your baby; you've taken care of them for 30 years and lost them in a second".
'But then when you think about it, you know our whole life could end in a second, not just part of the body, but your whole life.'
She added: 'The thing that bothered me with losing the fingernails was that it becomes your identity and I felt like I'd lost part of that.
'Yet I would always say when people would make comments about my fingernails, you know there's more to me than my fingernails.'
Lee was once offered £60,000 to have them clipped on live TV, has turned down the offer.
She also contemplated cutting them in 2006, to help her in caring for her husband, who suffers from Azheimer's.
However she changed her mind, insisting that the nails did not interfere with her husband's care.
As to her future plans regarding her nails, Ms Redmond said: 'People ask if I'm going to grow them again and I say, no, it was a one-time thing.
'It took me 30 years to grow them and to get them to that length and they became the world record, and I probably won't live for 30 more years.
'I always did everything with them, but now it's so much easier to do things. The weight is so different. In fact my hands seem to fly with the weight gone.'
She spoke about her loss for the launch of the 'Guinness Book of World Records' 2010 edition. [
rc]
Just a few inches: Lee Redmond, with her shorter talons, holds a copy of the Guinness book of World Records
© 2009 Associated Newspapers Ltd
It was an epic 30-year mission of personal growth involving many twists and turns. But for the woman who grew her fingernails to a record-breaking 28ft (about 8.5 metres), it all came to a shattering end when a car-crash wiped out all that non-nail-biting work in a moment. Despite pleas from her great-grandchildren to 'glue them back on', Lee Redmond, of Salt Lake City, Utah is resigned to a life of comparatively normal nails, with her current nails measuring 'just' 4.5inches.
Crash: Lee Redmond lost her record-breaking nails in an accident in February
Speaking for the first time about the loss of her nails, which happened in the crash in February, Ms Redmond (born February 2, 1941) said the crash was 'the most dramatic' event in her life.
But in a philosophical musing, she added: 'There's more to life than nails.'
Lee's fingernails had not been cut since 1979, but it all came to an end when she suffered serious injuries in a collision with another car at a cross-roads.
She added: 'I think it was my grandson that said: "Grandma, they are like your baby; you've taken care of them for 30 years and lost them in a second".
'But then when you think about it, you know our whole life could end in a second, not just part of the body, but your whole life.'
She added: 'The thing that bothered me with losing the fingernails was that it becomes your identity and I felt like I'd lost part of that.
'Yet I would always say when people would make comments about my fingernails, you know there's more to me than my fingernails.'
Lee was once offered £60,000 to have them clipped on live TV, has turned down the offer.
She also contemplated cutting them in 2006, to help her in caring for her husband, who suffers from Azheimer's.
However she changed her mind, insisting that the nails did not interfere with her husband's care.
As to her future plans regarding her nails, Ms Redmond said: 'People ask if I'm going to grow them again and I say, no, it was a one-time thing.
'It took me 30 years to grow them and to get them to that length and they became the world record, and I probably won't live for 30 more years.
'I always did everything with them, but now it's so much easier to do things. The weight is so different. In fact my hands seem to fly with the weight gone.'
She spoke about her loss for the launch of the 'Guinness Book of World Records' 2010 edition. [rc]
Just a few inches: Lee Redmond, with her shorter talons, holds a copy of the Guinness book of World Records
© 2009 Associated Newspapers Ltd
