From the archives: This story was last updated in July 2019.
After a couple in a Walmart checkout line aired their spiteful views about a foster mother using food stamps to pay for her groceries, the lady in front of them decided to serve them a lesson they probably won’t forget anytime soon.Rae took notice of the mother and her five children when she overheard some hurtful remarks a couple behind her were making about them.
The well-dressed couple were “loudly whispering” about the mother: “How many baby daddies do you think she has?” “Can’t even dress those kids for weather,” they went on to say. “Just wait until she whips out the food stamps,” ridiculed the couple.
As the mom was trying to separate the food from the clothing, she was also trying to manage the food stamps. More nasty remarks were heard from the pair behind … “There’s our tax dollars neatly at work,” the couple said smugly.
Having nine kids herself, Rae empathized with the mom who was struggling. She looked at the couple behind and “shot them what I can only imagine was the death glare only a mother of 9 can execute to perfection.”
Then, Rae stepped forward and kindly asked the poor mom: “Can I help?” The woman looked at her, and she quietly asked: “Foster or Adopted?”
Rae let the mom know she has “9 kiddos,” two of them biological. The woman smiled embarrassingly and revealed that she was a new foster mom, and it was also her first time using food stamps.
“They came 3 days ago,” the woman explained. “Gonna be with us for a while. They gave us food, but the kids needed clothes. But no stipend has come through yet.” Rae looked at the children and smiled, then turned to her and said: “Beautiful children I am glad you all have each other.”
She kindly showed the woman how to use the food stamps before giving her a hug and whispering, “You’ve got this.” After the mother finished checking out all her things, she and her five children went on their way.
Rae waited till the woman and her kids were out of earshot before she turned to glare at the couple behind her with tears in her eyes. She said:
“Those children? They lost the right to live with their parents just days ago. Those clothes? Probably the only clothes they own or got to leave their home with.”
“THAT woman? Opened her home to kids—kids that needed a safe place to go, when the one they lived in no longer proved safe enough or secure enough for them. The food stamps, something health and welfare helps an already mother to two feed three new mouths. There are not nearly enough women or people like her this world.”
As Rae started loading her things on the conveyor belt, she realized she wasn’t finished with the couple behind her.
With her voice shaking, she told the couple: “AND even IF those kids were all hers, and she had a dozen ‘baby daddies’ and was on food stamps. . . no child in this country or any other deserves to be cold or hungry. I am sorry, but your behavior? Poorly done, VERY poorly done.”
The couple apparently “left my checkout aisle and joined another, silently.”
The cashier, who had witnessed all of this, said to Rae with a smile and a wink, “[I’m a] single mother on WIC, what you said? Rocked!” She grimaced and replied: “Thanks, I wasn’t sure I should have gone off like that...hug those babies of yours tight tonight. ”
Rae topped off her post by stating “You foster mama’s out there. . . hold your heads high, you are the hands and hearts that are the strong and the steady for small ones when they need it most. Hats off and so much love today to you.”
The post ended up spreading far and wide, garnering 290,000 reactions and over 282,000 shares. What are your thoughts on this incident? And what would you have done if you were in Rae’s situation?
