Paul Walker’s untimely death shocked fans all over the world. Since the tragic car crash that took his life on Saturday, people have been coming forward to tell the stories of how Walker touched their lives forever. One very touching story comes from Kristen and Kyle Upham.
Kristen and Kyle were in a jewelry store looking at the engagement rings when Kyle noticed another man in the store. He didn’t immediately recognize him, but while Kristen was browsing through the rings, he struck up a conversation with the stranger.
“I had returned home from Iraq and we decided to drive up to Santa Barbara for the weekend and we were in a jewelry store, just window shopping and another guy in the store with us. … While she was looking at rings, I started talking to this guy for about 10, maybe 15 minutes,” Kyle said on Wednesday. “When he found out I had just gotten back from Iraq and he was shaking my hand and thanking me for my service and just treating me like a celebrity and then we exchanged names and…” “[We] Found out he was the celebrity,” Kristen said.
A ring that cost around $10,000 caught Kristen’s eye. Because they were just window shopping, she knew that she couldn’t take the ring home that day, and was hoping to save up enough money to one day come back for it. Kyle and Kristen then left the store to get some lunch, but received a phone call not long after asking them to come back to the store.
“I didn’t want to go back. I thought it was a trick, I thought they were gonna try to get us, just to put, like finance the ring and I didn’t want to do that either so I almost didn’t go back. He had to convince me to go back to the store,” Kristen said. Despite her reservations about heading back to the store, she went and found a big surprise waiting for her.
“We both walk in and a girl comes walking from the back holding a bag and she gives it to me and says, ‘Here’s your ring.’ Like, ‘What do you mean, ‘Here’s my ring?’” Kristen said. They were told that an anonymous person had paid for the ring and it was hers to take home. While Walker had asked to remain anonymous, the couple knew that he had to be the one to pay for the ring because he was the only one in the store at the time.
Irene King, an associate of the jewelry store, recalls Walker’s generosity. “He called the manager and he said, ‘Umm, the ring that those people are looking at – put it on my tab,’” King remembered. “Soon after that, he just left.” King kept the secret for years, but after his death, King wanted to share Walker’s kindness. “To do something like that to a perfect stranger is just unbelievable,” King said.
[Image via Twitter]