Sam, A Life of Love and Service
Tonight as I drove home from Sam
Spector's funeral, I watched the sky turn from day into night. The
trees were black cutouts against a deep gray quilt of clouds with
open seams of silver. I thought I glimpsed the light of the stars
behind the clouds. As night came on the seams were drawn together
by the hand of night until the darkness was complete. Somehow this
made me think of Sam. Maybe it was because he was such a bright star
in the morning of our lives and our lives seem a little darker now
that he is gone. He radiated joy and strength and confidence. He
made you believe anything was possible. He was a sweet person with a
solid core of goodness. Somehow, I knew that no matter the
circumstances he would make things right.
As age began to take its toll on him,
he never complained of pain or admitted to any aliment. He literally
“soldiered” on. When he was 86, he could walk my feet off!! I
have a memory of trying to keep up with him as we trotted down
cobblestone streets in Rome.
Yet, time is a theft to all of us and
Sam was no exception. Time did its best to rob Sam of memory. He did
lose the names of common objects, but somehow he kept going and never
let on that things were getting difficult for him. It seemed that as
long as he had Virginia, he had everything he needed.
Some years ago,Sam told my brother (his
son-in-law), that even if Virginia just left the room, he missed her.
Knowing this, as hard as losing him was, I think his losing her
would have been much, much worse. Now, he will never know that pain.
Virginia, dear, loving, patient Virginia does know this deep pain.
No one can hold it away from her. Only she can bear it. After all,
Sam and Virginia spent 70 years as man and wife, loving one another,
raising a family having thriving careers and living the dreams they
shared as young people in the wake of World War II. Still, I think
she would rather it be this way. Love is like that.
Losing Sam is such a blow to all who
knew and loved him. Our world has become poorer by this loss, but so
much rich for the many gifts he give us. These gifts will live on in
the lives of all who knew and loved him, those who benefited by his
heroic service in World War II, the children of Malmar (formerly
known as Burma) in the school and library he helped to found, the
students he taught and all the people he mentored, people living in
the many homes he built and, every life he touched. It is as if he
left a road map for our future, one labeled, “How to make the world
a better, kinder place for all”.Yet beyond all of this that I
write, there is much more. His family, Virginia, Julie and Tom have
intimate knowledge and understanding of Sam; his life and the reality
of his magnificence and the indelible marks he made on them. Much of
his story is only known by them.
Heaven is graced with another star.
May we look heavenward and think of you when the stars peer down upon
us, Sam.
