Jamie West fled at the age of 12 after spending years in terrible foster homes. Until she was 17, she was homeless. At White Castle, she received assistance and a safe place: “I never once got turned away.”
Jamie West knew she wanted to get married at White Castle because it was a place she had a special connection to after dating Drew Schmitt for 15 years.
According to West in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, “I only exist today through the love and kindness of strangers who have helped me out along the way.”
West, who was placed in foster care at the age of 4, moved around 94 times in only eight years. She alleges that at many of the homes, she was subjected to physical and sexual assault. She recalls, “It was a scary experience. “Just a string of extremely dangerous situations for a young girl to be in.”
West made a decision when she was 12 years old: “I realized that I wasn’t going to survive the system, unless I took off on my own.” She fled her foster home via the bathroom window and was homeless for the next five years, travelling the nation. I used to go for very long stretches without eating, she admits.
READ ON : AFTER HER FIANCÉ’S MARRIAGE PROPOSAL ON A PIECE OF PAPER BECAME VIRAL, THE WOMAN REACTS
She came across a White Castle one day when she was starving and alone.
“Having any kind of safe space is life changing for an underage homeless kid,” claims West. “You poor thing,” said the woman at the desk the first time I entered a White Castle. She granted me access to the restroom and gave me a brand-new cup of water and a stack of sliders. I had to wash my hands and my face.
After that, “every single time I saw a White Castle, I ran,” the woman claims. “Most of the time, no matter how old you were, if you were dirty and plainly homeless, you weren’t welcome. The only place where, no matter where I went, if I saw a White Castle, I knew I was safe. They would feed me, I knew. They would have water, I knew. Knowing that I could use the restroom. I was never turned away once.
2019 saw the opening of a new outlet for the fast food business close to her Scottsdale, Arizona home, and West and Schmitt camped overnight in the parking lot to be the eatery’s first customers. The company established the Cravers Hall of Fame in 2001 as a special club to honour its most devoted customers, and they were admitted into it the following year. Schmitt proposed to West while she was on the stage.
She explains, “I was up there telling everyone, ‘I am the product of every homeless child you’ve fed in your stores, and I wouldn’t be here now if it wasn’t for you guys being the altruistic company that you are,’” “Drew was popping the question when I turned around. It still makes me cry when I talk about it. It’s astounding.
The pair wed on May 5 at White Castle in Scottsdale in front of 150 guests in a ceremony with a medieval theme.
Schmitt chose a kilt and armour with the White Castle slogan, “I crave therefore I am,” engraved in gold Latin, while West selected an outfit befitting a queen. The Goddesses of Bagpipes played Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” as the bride came down the aisle, and West’s two nieces served as her flower girls, tossing dried onion chips in place of flowers. The major component in sliders at White Castle is the onion, which is technically a flower, she exclaims. “When I was in really, really, really bad spots, it was hard to wake up the next day and have any hope of a future, or think you’ll ever get out,” she claims. “If I could just spare one child from that and let them know that they can escape any situation at home, they will survive. You can go through it and do anything. You have the ability to change.
READ ON : TWINS THAT WED TWINS DISCUSS THEIR QUATERNARY MARRIAGE’S CONFLICT RESOLUTION PROCESS
