White Citadel, an American hamburger restaurant, can also be identified for its significant marriage ceremony ceremonies, other than its scrumptious hamburger sliders.
Lately, a pair obtained married right here and seemed again on the bride’s most great reminiscence of the restaurant. She was a homeless teen within the Nineties and was fed by one of many restaurant’s staff.
Jamie West might always remember that day in her life when a White Citadel worker showered her with heartfelt kindness. For over eight years, she was out and in of 94 foster houses.
Supply: Jamie West
When she was 12 and a half years outdated, she had the braveness to hitchhike along with her buddies and lived at a homeless camp close to Arizona State College. She later hitchhiked to Southern California, dwelling on seashores in a counterculture setting.
At 16, West was totally on her personal and has been abusing medication and alcohol. One fateful day, she got here throughout a White Citadel in a city she wasn’t conversant in and requested for some water.
“This girl working there mentioned, ‘Oh, Sugar, you poor factor — go get your self cleaned up within the rest room,’” West recalled.
Supply: Drew Schmitt
“I went in there and cried, then washed up. After I got here out, these huge sacks full of slider hamburgers have been ready for me.”
The girl defined that she wished to offer her the meals as a substitute of throwing them away. West was so touched that she hugged the lady, grabbed the meals, and ran away.
Courtesy Jamie West
West remembered that different eating places and quick meals chains at the moment have been somewhat harsh to homeless individuals like her and a few wouldn’t even permit them to enter. This was why she was so grateful for the lady who gave her the meals and by no means forgot about her.
“Each time after that, once I noticed a White Citadel, I knew it was someplace that I might be secure to run to, and if I used to be ravenous, I might be capable of get fed,” West says.
Laura Segall Images
“It wasn’t one thing I wished to reap the benefits of as a result of the system was so pure. And it was such a fantastic expertise to get handled like a human being. I didn’t wish to break it.”
It took West a couple of years to lastly pull herself collectively and get again on monitor. In her 20s, she moved again to Arizona and met her now husband, Drew Schmitt.
In 2019, West heard {that a} White Citadel can be open close to her residence in Scottsdale, Arizona. She was so excited that she obtained crowns, axes, and swords and camped exterior with Schmitt on the opening day.
Supply: Jamie West
The couple, wearing Renaissance costumes, have been the primary individuals to get contained in the constructing and have been even interviewed by the native information.
West shared her unforgettable White Citadel story and so they have been inducted into the restaurant’s corridor of fame. This occasion additionally led to the couple’s engagement.
Supply: Jamie West
West and Schmitt had one of the crucial significant marriage ceremony ceremonies in White Citadel. West wore a blue, beaded, and embellished marriage ceremony costume with an identical crown whereas Schmitt donned a hand-crafted and customized leather-based armor and a quilt.
“My costume was a quinceanera costume as a result of it’s our fifteenth 12 months collectively,” shared West.
To commemorate West’s most unforgettable second of White Citadel, they opted for a slider-shaped marriage ceremony cake.
Courtesy Jamie West
They’d a medieval-themed ceremony the place the flower ladies used dehydrated onions as a substitute of flower petals and the friends had White Citadel hamburger sliders. As an alternative of actual marriage ceremony rings, the couple had Celtic ring finger tattoos.
“We’re so grateful that we discovered one another and have change into one another’s companions and greatest buddies,” mentioned Schmitt. “Jamie has been by robust challenges in her life, so it’s great that she’s now on this joyful place.”
Laura Segall Images
Lastly, West had a message for the White Citadel worker who saved her on one of many darker days of her life: “Thanks for being the rationale I exist proper now, not understanding what you have been doing and simply feeding someone since you’re a very good human.”
Watch Jamie’s heart-warming White Citadel story within the video beneath:
