Thanks Steve, for SAMMY!

“Sammy” was a unique person who taught me more than anyone without speaking a word. She was very wise beyond her years. Her real name was “Sang Im” .. .which I shortened to “Sammy”.

I was visited by my friend “Steve”, who owned and operated a Driving School. It was called “Arrow” with an Arrow pointing upward. His school taught people from all walks of life, of all ages and many came from almost all of the countries of the world.

Steve would drive by as the kids came out of school, since the “arrow” was pointing upward the kids would give Steve the “Middle Finger” as a “hello!”

One day, Steve stopped at my home in Central New Jersey and I met him at the front door. He introduced me to a short young lady who looked up at me and shook my hand. She was from South Korea. I asked them to come inside, while I heated up a cup of tea.

Some time afterward, she said she was living with her sister in a local town right nearby. She was a “nanny” for two little boys where she cooked and baby sat in return for room & board.

Up to that time, I had little experience, knowing someone who had recently come to the USA from another country. She explained to me that her family was having major money problems back in Seoul, Korea, since all the schools charged a fee for all the students and very hard times fell directly on her father, the head of the family.

Her dad owned a farm just outside the city and had lent his workers advances of their pay when these folks had spent their money to buy clothing and other necessities for their families.

Just at that time, the newly elected President of South Korea, campaigned on a platform which forgave all debts. Of course, many of the electorate was poor and they gave him a resounding victory at the polls. This meant that she needed to work to send home money ASAP!

She asked me if she could live in my house, pay rent and get a local job in order to make her life mean something to her and her family. I said that would be fine with me, but I hoped she could contribute something to the house in general. She said she would clean for two days a week, but that wasn’t necessary since I was lucky to have tenants who cleaned their living quarters on a daily basis.

My dog, Mara, seemed to sense that Sammy was her boss. Mara obeyed Sammy without words, just a look from Sammy, would do the trick.

Sammy, living on a farm all of her life, knew methods of fertilization and ways to grow food items which nobody in the area knew. My next door neighbors, some who spent a fortune to a variety of lawn services couldn’t believe how Sammy had made my front lawn so green. She grew the largest tomatoes anyone had ever seen. She knew secrets which, to this day, made an awful lot of sense, but were so incredibly simple. As a vivid example.

Her Tomatoes:

In the winter, the electric dryer exhaust was pointed downward just outside the laundry room. She planted her tomato plants just under the exhaust. Each night, when my roommates arrived home after a day of work, they did their laundry.

When it was especially cold out, her tomato plants sprouted and started to grow and grow. After about two weeks, these tomatoes were at least six inches or more, in diameter, larger by far than any other anyone had ever seen. If we were nearby a 4H club she would have won every prize for any plant in the contest!

The front lawn:

Every weekday, Sammy would kneel and hand-pick weeds from the front lawn! Then, each day she would feed that lawn some kind of food which, to this day, I am not sure what, but that stuff caused the lawn to become the thickest, greenest lawn in the entire neighborhood. All my neighbors were absolutely astounded at Sammy’s results. But as a good chef, Sammy would not relinquish her secret, “recipes”!

Obviously, Sammy, had no formal education in either Botany or Horticulture, yet, was the most successful person I ever knew, having these special talents.

One day, Sammy was sent a letter from a cousin who didn’t know that her family was so grateful for Sammy’s regular payments, they held back a major secret from their eldest sister. The Cousin told her that she felt bad about her father’s suddenly being taken to the hospital.

Desperately Sammy asked me to “lend” her the $800.00 plus for a one-way airfare to Korea to be there to help her family so they didn’t lose their farm.

Of course, without a thought, I gave her the money and she wrote out a mailing address so I could keep in touch with her in the future. She assured me that as soon as things got better, she would return to my house.

What happened caused me to shed a tear as she knew she would never return and had no way of paying me back, the address she gave me was not real and as a result, I only have my memories of Sammy the most incredibly talented caring individual I have ever known.

Again, THANKS STEVE FOR STOPPING AT MY HOUSE WITH “SAMMY”!