Friday Feature: Standing with Casey

Photo: Rene Syler's
Good Enough Mother

Once you're a parent, it's almost impossible to read a news story about a child or a teen without some kind of emotional reaction. Often, that reaction is, "how would I feel if that were my child?"

Last weekend, I read one of those stories. Posted on a friend's Facebook page, it told the story of Rene Syler's daughter, Casey and her experience at a store called Carolina Girls, where she was first insulted by a sales clerk and later on the receiving end of something that could barely be called an apology, and, instead, reeked of denial.

Maybe the story wouldn't have hit me as hard if I didn't have a daughter Casey's age. Maybe it wouldn't have resonated in quite the same way if my teenager hadn't spent a week at the Outer Banks earlier this summer and, quite possibly, shopped at stores just like the one where the saleswoman was so insulting to Casey.

But I hope that's not the case.

Motherhood is a joined-at-the-heart kind of thing, often powerful enough to unite strangers who may have little else in common. I don't know Rene or Casey, but I was perhaps as incensed by what happened to Casey as I would have been if it had happened to a young woman I do know.

And so, I was really glad to read the wrap-up--the one where Vera Bradley, Lilly Pulitzer and a store called Tres Carmen Boutique showed the class so sorely lacking by Carolina Girls.

Like any life story, the happy ending doesn't negate the adversity that preceded it. I'm sorry this happened to anyone's daughter, and, while I can't fix it, I can share the story, recognizing the good, the bad and the classy, in the hopes that the good and the classy will prevail.

And it won't happen to someone else's daughter.