Bed Bath & Beyond is liquidating in bankruptcy nationwide in a shutdown that includes Warwick’s Bald Hill Road Bed Bath & Beyond. The Warwick store and all other locations of the chain were to be closed to customers by end of July. In the last few days of the store, only a small section of shelves remained, with miscellaneous items packed together: loose silverware next to candles, bath mats, sanitary spray – all on 75% to 90% discount. While big-box stores come and go, this particular location will leave a hole in the community.

Twenty-eight-year-old Becca Seamans, a graduate of Warwick Veterans High School, started working at Bed Bath and Beyond thirteen years ago. As a sixteen year old, Seamans was doing what many of her peers were doing, going out and getting a first job at a local retail store. For Seamans, however, having a first job was an extra special landmark as she was diagnosed with a rare condition called Dubowitz Syndrome at age four.

Despite the challenges Seamans has faced, her mother, Sharon Terzian, has always been a firm believer in the value of work and an independent income for her daughter. She also knew Becca enjoyed folding towels, so Bed Bath & Beyond was a logical pick. “I brought her in for an interview,” Terzian recalls. “She went in by herself and then comes out. The manager tells me, ‘okay, she’s all set. She starts on Monday.’”

Seamans didn’t miss work for the next 13 years, except for an eight week stretch she spent in Hasbro Children’s hospital at age nineteen. “Corporate called us, gave her sick time, and sent flowers to the hospital,” Terzian says. “A couple of her co-workers came to see her and brought her coloring books.”

Bald Hill Bed Bath & Beyond is a training location for employees, so store managers regularly cycled in and out. Even as the staff changed through the years, Terzian says Becca was always taken care of. “They always made sure someone looked after her. If an alarm was going off and she was freaking out, someone would look after her. They had a sticker board for when she did a good job.”

Terzian and Seamans have been searching for new jobs, ever since they got wind of the closing a year ago. Thus far, they haven’t been successful. What jobs have been available have not fit with Seamans’ schedule, which includes regular visits to the doctor.

The two of them will continue looking until they find something that can provide stable, caring, employment. In the meantime, Seamens has just finished her last duties at the Bed Bath & Beyond – cleaning up the store with the rest of the crew. The store manager brought pizza and cookies. “They were nice people there. It was my first job ever.”