October 15th was National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day. That particular day is bittersweet for any parent who has suffered a loss, this year it was especially hard for a woman named Jacinta Masters.
*Masters and now 2-year-old daughter Charlotte.
At 25 weeks pregnant Jacinta found out that her baby had passed away as a result of hydrops, a buildup of fluid around the baby’s organs.
Jacinta was scheduled to be induced on October 11th — just four days before she would be mourning her baby on National Pregnancy & Infant Loss Remembrance Day.
On her way to the hospital Jacinta stopped at a local store to return a few baby items that she had purchased for her baby. After initially being told she wouldn’t be able to return the items without the credit card used to purchase the items, Jacinta broke down and told the woman working at the counter that she “didn’t want to see them or deal with them” when she got home from delivering her stillborn baby.
The store worker then got a manager to override the transaction and took Jacinta over the baby blanket section to pick out a blanket for her baby that would be born later that day.
After the delivery of her stillborn son, Sammy, Jacinta penned this heartfelt letter to a woman whose name she didn’t even know but helped her in a time of despair.
“You didn’t know me. But I came in to best and less this morning, to return some special suits I brought for my baby I was carrying.
I was told I couldn’t return them because I didn’t have the bank card with me that I used to purchase.
And I broke down and explained I didn’t have it, and I was on my way to hospital to be induced to have my baby who had passed away, and I wanted them returned now because I don’t want to see them or deal with them when I get home. And in the split second that I said that, I seen the sincerity in your face. You got your manager to override that policy to give me my refund.
You then asked me if I had a blanket to wrap him in. I didn’t. It was one of the things I had to buy that morning.
You came and gave me a big hug and let me cry on your shoulder. You then took me to the blanket section and helped me pick out a blanket. Blue mink with white clouds on it. It was perfect.
At the checkout, I tried to pay for it. But you turned my money away and covered it out of your own pocket. I cried some more. And told you, you are such an angel. I was lost for words. I didn’t know how to thank you!!
I cried all the way to the hospital. I sat outside the front of the hospital for 15mins, just crying and clutching my baby’s blanket.
I don’t know you, and sadly I don’t even know your name. But I want you to know how thankful I am to have met you and thankful for what you did for me and my little Sammy.
I just want you to know, it brought so much comfort cuddling his blanket through the contractions, and then wrapping him in it when he was born.
And I’ll never EVER forget what you did for me and my baby.
You truly are an angel and I thank you from the bottom of my heart!! Xxxx”
UPDATE: Since posting the open letter it has gone viral and the shop worker’s name has been discovered as Jo.
*Check out BabyCenter’s own loss expert and co-founder of Reconceiving Loss, Tara Shafer.
Photo Credits: Jacinta Masters and iStock
