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A Sales Assistant Called My Wife ‘Too Old’ — So I Came Back With a Vengeance

My wife came home shaken after a sales assistant told her she wasn’t “young” or “pretty enough” to work in their store. She brushed it off, but I saw the hurt behind her smile — the way it made her shrink into herself. For two nights, I couldn’t sleep. I kept thinking about the quiet cruelty of that moment, and how easily they dismissed the most beautiful woman I know. So two days later, I went back. I wore my best blazer, walked in with purpose, and said to the manager…

Her name is Lily. She’s 44. She laughs too loud at bad jokes, and has a habit of apologizing when it’s not her fault. She’s not a model. She’s not airbrushed. She’s real. And she’s the most beautiful person I’ve ever known.

So when she came home with her eyes red and her hands shaking, I knew something had happened.

She told me she’d gone into one of those trendy, overpriced boutiques downtown. You know the kind — minimal lighting, blank-faced mannequins, sales assistants who look like they haven’t smiled since the Bush administration.