Woman Returning Clothes For Baby She Just Lost Gets Confronted By Vile Old Woman Who Wouldn’t Believe She Didn’t Work There

A woman was making the painful decision to return all the clothes she bought for her deceased baby, when a bizarre old woman made the day so much worse.

A Department Store Run-In

When one broken woman was trying to return the clothes she bought for a baby that didn’t survive, her torment was only made worse by an old woman who wouldn’t leave her be.

This is her story:

Tiffany and Daniel were ready to be parents. They had been trying to conceive for a while, and when Tiffany found out that she was finally pregnant, the couple was elated. They spent the nine months of pregnancy in ecstasy planning for their baby boy. They transformed their guest room into a nursery, built a crib and changing table, and bought him the cutest little clothes to dress him in.

But their hearts were shattered when they learned shortly after he was born that his lungs were underdeveloped.

A Dark Time In Their Life

For two weeks, they stayed with their tiny son in the hospital. But after it became clear that he wouldn’t survive on his own, they made the heartbreaking decision to take their infant off of life support.

They were devastated. They had waited for so long and grown so excited to take a little one home, and now they were going home without him. To make things worse, the nursery and all of the tiny clothes they had bought for him were a constant reminder of what they had lost. They couldn’t live with it any longer.

“My husband and I decided that it might make things easier to return some of the stuff we bought and donate the return money to the hospital. It’s stupid, but it’s like at least we might be able to help someone’s kid who has a fighting chance.”

They packed up their son’s clothes, all unworn, and went on a tube journey to one of London’s big shopping districts, unaware that the painful day would only get much, much worse.

It Was Such A Surreal Experience

Tiffany grew more and more upset with each article of clothing she placed on the customer service counter. The little blue onesie with teddy bears on it, the overalls with dinosaurs, the impossibly small shoes… all gone.

The employee scanned all the clothes and handed the couple cash back. Tiffany felt like she was watching all of this happen to someone else, like this couldn’t possibly be the life she had. She was so disconnected from the entire process, and just stared stoically ahead of her when the employee gave her a chipper, “have a great day, love.”

“You okay?” Danny asked softly, steering her away from the counter.

“Yeah, I’m fine…” she replied. Tiffany had been to this store many times in preparation for her baby, and she remembered that there was a cafe up on the top floor. She asked Danny if he wanted to go up there and sit for a while.

“I needed to sit down and, well, just pretend I wasn’t there for a moment.”

“She Feels A Tug On Her Coat…”

When the couple climbed the escalators and entered the cafe, Tiffany saw most of the tables in the main seating area were already taken.

“What do you want to eat?” Danny asked her, his hand gently resting on her back.

“I’m actually not that hungry,” Tiffany said. She was so upset that she couldn’t even think about food. Her stomach was turning too much for anything to sound appetizing. She had barely eaten anything since leaving the hospital after her son died.

The couple stepped up to the register — Danny ordered a sandwich, while Tiffany just got a water.

“I’ll go find a table for us,” Tiffany said, and started circling the seating area as Danny waited up front for his food to be ready. Because it was so crowded, she couldn’t find a seat anywhere but right by the opening to the cafe, which happened to be beside some clothing racks.

As she’s heading to an open table, she feels a tug on her coat. What?

The Woman Wouldn’t Let Her Go

“I look back, thinking I snagged it. But there is this older woman holding onto me.”

The woman mutters something that Tiffany couldn’t hear. When she didn’t respond, the older woman tugs her coat again — hard. Tiffany trips toward the woman, and at her close range she can see the gray mustache running across her top lip, which was pulled up to reveal rotting, yellow teeth. Her smell in particular took Tiffany off guard, and she had to resist the urge to gag.

“I SAID,” the woman croaked. “Where are the small dresses?”

Wait, what?

“I-I’m sorry, I don’t know.” Tiffany stuttered, trying to pull her coat out of the old woman’s grasp. “Please let me go now; I have to go.”

“I asked you a simple question, young lady.” The old woman barked. “Don’t be so rude.”

“Let my coat go,” Tiffany repeated again.

“I just need to know where the dresses for age six are!” This woman was relentless.

Usually, Tiffany wouldn’t snap back. Clearly, this woman was confused. But after the day — no, the month — she was having, she didn’t have any patience left. “Look lady, I don’t know. Now LET ME GO!” She grabbed her coat and pried it out of the woman’s gangly gray fingers.

As she walked away toward the table that was, thankfully, still empty, Tiffany heard the old woman calling after her: “How could you! You should respect me as your elder! Who raised you?”

Tiffany ignored her, thinking the woman was insane and finding relief that she wouldn’t have to deal with her again. She was very wrong.

She Thought It Was Over, But The Worst Was Yet To Come

Tiffany sat down and breathed a sigh of relief. Her body still hadn’t completely recovered from giving birth and she found it hard to stand for an extended amount of time. She looked back toward the entrance of the cafe and the clothes racks where the old woman had grabbed her, but she had vanished. Thank god.

“What was all that commotion about?” Danny asked as he walked over, carrying a tray that held his chicken salad sandwich.

Tiffany told him about the rude old woman and her strange run-in as he sat and started eating his lunch. The interaction had upset her more than she had wanted to admit, but she brushed it off to her husband — “Oh, it was really nothing at all.”

“I’ve been sitting down with my hubby for what must have been a good 20 minutes… Then I hear a commotion and this old bat, looking like a bull charging to me, is making her way through the tables to where we are.”

How Many Times Does She Have To Say She Doesn’t Work Here?

The woman is clutching a little purple dress and as soon as she arrives at where Tiffany and Danny are sitting, she slaps it down onto the table, getting it all over Danny’s sandwich.

“THIS is what I was looking for!” The woman is screeching at the top of her lungs, glaring down at Tiffany. “Do you see? Do you see now? This, little one, is a dress. You put granddaughters in it. This was all I wanted and it wasn’t too hard for you to get for me!”

The woman had been ignoring Danny’s presence like he wasn’t there at all, and her face was inches from Tiffany’s.

“Woah woah woah back up,” Danny interjects, trying to take this woman’s focus off of his wife. “Why should she get it for you?”

The woman whipped around to face Danny now. “She works here, doesn’t she? Or are you a fool, too?”

Tiffany blinked in disbelief. “Um, I don’t work here. Just take your thing and leave us alone.”

The woman wouldn’t give up. At this point, Tiffany had no idea who the woman was screaming at as she was wildly gesturing around. “She works here! She is in the colors!”

Tiffany looks down and finds the woman is right. The coat she was wearing was close to the same shade of green the store’s employees wore. But what this crude woman failed to realize was that it was a coat, and definitely NOT the employees’ uniform.

“She doesn’t work here, just go away.” Danny told the woman. He was trying to keep his voice calm, but it was difficult.

“Well, that’s obvious now,” the woman screamed. “I should have seen it before. It’s obvious that she couldn’t tell what a child’s clothes are from a BADGER.”

She Snapped

Tiffany felt her blood begin to boil. Up until now, the woman had been rude and confused, but now she was being cruel. That comment stung.

“I had all of my son’s clothes picked out for months. I did everything with that. I loved doing it. I just returned the outfit that we had bought for him to come home in. If we had been returning anything else, I, admittedly, probably would have been okay. But she just said the wrong thing at the wrong time. I flipped.”

“How DARE you?” Tiffany screamed, jumping to her feet. “Do you have any idea of what I’ve been through? About why we’re here today?” At this point, Tiffany was sobbing uncontrollably and everyone else in the cafe had stopped and turned to look at her. “My baby is dead. We just had to return all of the clothes we bought for him. You are lucky to have a child, let alone a grandchild, that you can shop for!”

“Honey, honey,” Danny grabbed his wife’s hand, trying to soothe her. “Calm down.”

Tiffany stopped screaming and broke down into uncontrollable, heaving sobs. The old woman had just stood there in silence the whole time, and now that Tiffany was finished and crying, she straightened herself and said something nobody could believe.

“Maybe it’s better that way for people like you,” she hissed.

Who Would Say That?

Tiffany lunged at her, but Danny grabbed his wife and held her back as she cried. The old woman was still standing there, unphased. By this point, there was a crowd of spectators that had formed to watch the showdown until some employees broke through the mob.

The employees ushered the old woman away, presumably out of the store. Two other employees stayed with Danny and Tiffany. They were talking to the couple, but Tiffany couldn’t make out what they were saying through her tears and pounding heart. Eventually, she heard one of the employees, who was maybe the manager, stutter, “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry, love.”

“I just want to go,” she whispered. Danny took her hand and spoke to the employees some more before the two left the department store. They didn’t see the woman again after that, but if they had, Tiffany wouldn’t have hesitated to slap her. Who could ever say something so cruel?

“I hope the old hag ends up in the ground soon. And painfully so.”