VIA GOFUNDME
Candy King was struck by a driver while crossing Gravois at Grand.
When Candace King woke up in the Saint Louis University hospital after being struck in a hit-and-run accident one month ago, she was not only missing her rent money, but a wedding ring with even greater than usual significance. Her husband was struck and killed by a drunk driver 30 years ago and King has continued to wear the wedding ring in honor of him. But while she was laying on the ground unconscious, she had apparently been robbed.
As she has done many times since the incident, King recently rehashed the story, this time for 106.5 the Arch in a segment that ran yesterday morning. This interview, however, was different.
King had just finished telling the story of her husband’s death when the radio hosts, Stacey and Jonah, paused the conversation.
“We’re getting a frantic wave from our boss,” Stacey said.
“Candace, can you hold on a second?” Jonah asked. “We’re getting word that there may be someone coming up to the studio that may be able to help with your ring.”
It wasn’t long before Jonathan Pottow was on air. The general manager of Diamonds Direct explained that he’d heard the interview as he was driving. With the jewelry store right next door to Hubbard Radio, which owns 106.5 the Arch, in Creve Coeur, he took a detour to join the morning show. And right there on the air, offered King a potential solution: another ring.
Pottow provided two options. King could choose between a black ring similar to her old one or “something a little bit more special.”
“If she would like to go a little bit above and beyond, we have also picked a beautiful one carat diamond wedding band,” he said.
King was taken by surprise, but Pottow isn’t the first to offer support.
King was reportedly struck on January 21 while she was crossing Gravois near South Grand. “I get about three steps across and then wham. After that I don't remember nothing,” she told KMOV. Police told KMOV they were unable to find surveillance video of the incident.
After the hit-and-run, though, one of King’s friends created a GoFundMe page to help make up for her lack of insurance and lost work time. The page has received nearly $5,000 in donations over the last month. Even more, when she was in the hospital for the ten-day period following her crash, customers at the restaurant where she works came to visit her (“a parade of them,” King added).
“I did not know I was cared about that much,” King said on air.
King is aiming to get back in the restaurant in eight to twelve weeks, but for the time being, it’s about taking it one step at a time — literally. After fractures to her pelvis, tailbone, and tibia, she is currently learning how to walk all over again.
But getting the ring shouldn’t be a problem. A press release from 106.5 notes that Pottow, along with Stacey and Jonah, will deliver the ring to King on Wednesday.
