Mom Thinks Couple Changed Tables Due to Her 3 Kids Until She’s Told They Lost a Child

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From the archives: This story was last updated in February 2019.

A mom of three had just sat down to eat at a restaurant when the couple seated beside them suddenly asked to change tables, causing her to misunderstand their intentions. However, when she learned the reason, she knew she was too quick in judging others and made up for it by paying their bill.

In January 2017, Ashley Wadleigh decided to bring her three children to eat at Red Robin before the school’s skate night at the ice arena. When she and her children were seated down at a table next to a couple, she noticed the woman beside her “immediately looked uncomfortable.”

In a Facebook post on Love What Matters, Wadleigh wrote that the woman “held her hand over half of her face like she didn’t want to look at us.”

The husband then got up and whispered something to the server, who helped them change tables.

Wadleigh became angry straight away and wondered: “What do you think my kids are going to do, throw food? Stab you with a fork?”

She then asked the server, whom she is familiar with, if the couple changed tables because of them. The server bent down next to the table and informed her, “They recently lost a child.”

“In that moment, I felt so ashamed. My heart literally skipped a beat. I felt horrible for her, I felt horrible for judging her,” Wadleigh confessed.

She decided on making up for it by paying for the couple’s bill. She also told the server not to let the couple know that she paid it for them.

However, the couple must have “figured it out,” and stopped Wadleigh when she was leaving.

“Trying so hard to hold back tears she said, ‘Ma’am, I didn’t want you to think because...‘ I interrupted and since I was about to cry myself I just gave her a hug and she whispered ’Thank you.' I told them ‘have a good night,’” recalled Wadleigh.

Though she felt “awful for their loss,” she was “grateful for this encounter.”

“It reminded me to never snap judge someone; you never know what others are going through. It also reminded me to live every moment with my children..to savor the good and bad..because they are here and they are mine. And also to of course always be kind,” Wadleigh explained.

As the saying goes, “Don’t be too quick to judge others!”