​Walking up to a pizza stand with her children at a downtown arena in Nashville, she looks just past the server to observe the menu options before ordering two slices of pepperoni. “Miss Candy!” the server cries, looking at her. With a questioning look, she gazes back at the server. “Don’t you recognize me, Miss Candy?” says the server with an excited smile. “I have a job...I’m doing well...I had my baby...you know me. We met under the bridge.”

This isn’t the first time such an event has taken place for Candy Christmas. In fact, some of the most precious people in her life are those she has met under the Jefferson Street Bridge in her hometown of Nashville, Tennessee, over the past thirteen years. A few years earlier, Candy left the road as a recording artist, something she had been doing since the age of 13 when she recorded her first album with her family’s group, The Hemphills. As part of this legendary southern gospel group, Candy became one of the genre’s most respected singers, garnering six GMA Dove Awards in addition to her own Dove as a member of the group Heirloom. She was also nominated for Contemporary Album of the Year in 1984 for her solo recording Heart Afire as she followed in the musical footsteps of her immediate family and aunt Vestal Goodman.

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