In 2004, Kyle Upham and his fiancée — now
wife — Kristen were looking for a diamond ring at one of Santa Barbara’s
jewelry stores. There was one more customer in the store, but, being focused on
their search, they paid no attention to him at first.
The man advised Kyle and Kristen to take a
closer look at more expensive jewelry, but the couple admitted they couldn’t
afford it. Then they started talking, and the young people finally realized
this friendly customer was Paul Walker himself. Kyle told the actor that he was
in the military, and soon he would have to go to Iraq for the second time. But
before that, he wanted to present his fiancée with an engagement ring.
Kristen remembers that Paul’s face
transformed when he heard Kyle was a soldier. But that day the couple didn’t
pay any attention to it, and they left the jewelry store without buying
anything: the diamonds turned out to be way too expensive for them.

However, soon a surprise was waiting for
them: they got a call from the store and were asked to come and take a $9,000
ring paid for by a person who wished to remain anonymous. The young couple
tried to find out who gave such a gift to them, but the store’s staff just
smiled, refusing to name the benefactor.
The truth came out only in 2013 when the
actor died. Irene King, a former worker in the jewelry store, decided there was
no sense in keeping this story a secret anymore.
According to Irene, the actor saw that
Kristen loved one of the rings, but her fiancé said he couldn’t afford it. Then
Paul asked a manager to put the ring on his tab and insisted that the gift
should be anonymous. He was extremely upset that a soldier who risked his life
couldn’t afford to buy his fiancée a ring, and he rushed to right a wrong.
That’s how Kyle and Kristen finally found out
who their anonymous benefactor was. ’It’s still to this day the most generous
thing anyone has ever done for me,’ said Kristen. ’When we hand down the ring
through the generations, there will always be a story to tell.’
Preview photo credit Kyle Upham / facebook.com | Warner Bros
Based on materials from losangeles.cbslocal.com
Please SHARE This With
Your Friends & Family..