Deaf Publix Employee Who Was Punched by Customer: ‘I Will Continue to Pray for Them’
A Publix employee is praying for the customer who punched her at work.
“I know hurt people usually are the ones that hurt people,” Liberty Gratz, who is deaf, said through her mother. “And so whoever it is, they’ve been prayed for. I will continue to pray for them, and I hope that things get better in their life so they can be better to other people.”
On April 22, Gratz, was stocking a lower shelf at the Virginia grocery store and didn’t respond when a woman asked for assistance.
Gratz has Usher’s syndrome, which results in partial blindness, as well as deafness. In addition to not hearing the customer, Gratz also could not see the customer in her peripheral vision.
That’s when the customer punched—some outlets report hit—Gratz.
“At this point Liberty was stunned, but turned and told the lady she couldn’t hear by pointing to her ear and shaking her head no,” Jeanette Gratz, Liberty’s mother, says. “She handed the lady a pen and paper so she could tell her what she needed, then showed her where it was. She said the lady still acted and looked angry while she was helping her.”
Store management showed Gratz video footage, but there were so many customers she was unable to identify the lady who attacked her.
The family has a GoFundMe account for Liberty and her twin brother, who also has Usher’s syndrome. The page was started before the work incident to help with the twins’ medical bills.
According to the page, the family is one of great faith, which sustains them during trying times.
Their family verse is John 16:33, which reads: “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
