Subscriber Actions. Staff Options. Connect With Us. Support Local Journalism. She said she found hope, though, in an unlikely place, when an employee at a White Castle restaurant handed her several bags of free hamburger sliders after she asked for a glass of water. About 25 years later, when she became engaged to Drew Schmitt, West said she knew exactly where she wanted their wedding: a White Castle that had recently opened in Scottsdale, about 20 miles from where they live.
West wore a bright-blue and gold ball gown with a full skirt, and Schmitt suited up in a kilt topped with custom-made leather armor. She said that she formerly lived with other teens at a homeless camp near Arizona State University in Tempe, then hitchhiked to Southern California and lived in beach communities with counterculture members of the Rainbow Family.
She does not remember exactly where she was, she said, but she believes she was in Kentucky or Tennessee. When I came out, there were these big sacks filled with slider hamburgers waiting for me. She said that scenario happened repeatedly at various White Castles across the country, no matter how rough-looking she was when she walked in.
When she was 17, West said, an aunt in Arizona took her in for a year and she was able to stop abusing illegal substances and begin to live a more stable life.
There were no White Castles in Arizona at the time, but when she traveled to states that had the burger chain, she would make it a point to stop by, and was happy to pay for her food now that she could afford it. Although her mother died five years ago, West said, she was recently able to reconnect with her father and is hoping to repair their relationship. She said it took years to put her painful past behind her, but she finally found love and acceptance after meeting Schmitt near Scottsdale in When White Castle opened its first location in Arizona in , they camped in the parking lot to be the first in line to go inside, and they have since become regulars.
