A Life Interrupted
Looking Back
John Samoles
Copyright © 2020 John Samoles
All rights reserved
First Edition
Fulton Books, Inc.
Meadville, PA
Published by Fulton Books 2020
ISBN 978-1-64654-442-4 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-64654-443-1 (digital)
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
I would like to dedicate this entire story to my mother, who is one of the only people that I completely respect. I have learned so much from her. It is mind-boggling for me to meet all the people I have met and began relationships with, all due to my mother’s upbringing of me. I am quite sure without her I would be in jail most likely for life. However, she provided me a way out to live the best way that I could and live and learn the right way. I can honestly say, Mother, I completely and truly thank you for your short life, teaching me all the important things. Thank you, Mom!
This one is for my wife, Jill, who stood by me throughout thick and thin, with all my family just trying to pick me apart. She was always there and always had my back through everything I went through the last twenty years. She had many of her own issues, such as breast cancer which she defeated by taking care of herself and having the surgery and radiation treatments, which seemed like they were going on forever; however, she tolerated all of it without any problems. She is another great person whom I loved and learned from in this life. Unfortunately, she had met my mother only one day, which they both enjoyed their wines together; then three days later Mom passed away. Jill is another angel who cares for me unconditionally as I do for her with everything I have left!
This is my life story, which I am starting with my mother, who I miss more than ever. She was always there for me throughout my entire life. I truly wish I had listened to her a little more, as well as given her back some of my opinions as well. She had it so hard her whole life, fighting like someone with very little time left in her life. She had made a mistake, as you could say, by getting herself pregnant with a person who took off on her; however, the fight in her made her stay the course, and she kept on living
She was living in an apartment complex in, I believe, North Bergan, with every town drunk knocking on her door each and every night until finally her mom and sisters came by with an idea to put the baby up for adoption—which my mom, like myself, had a tremendous hardship doing. She was a good, strong woman who would not take any shit back. In those days she walked the walk, as they say today; however, she did it back in the day when it was almost impossible to do on your own without any family support.
I have nothing but great things to say about my mom because she was always up against it for no good reason and always came through it without any acclaim or anything. Anyone ever said was a good thing; she was always unselfish.
Another ironic thing is that my mom went blind in her right eye, and I lost my right eye to diabetes a few years ago; however, it is unreal that we had both lost the same eye in our lifetime. I believe that it just shows how emotionally close we both were and still are. I could never get tired of talking about or even discussing my mom due to her strong and emotional personality. She was the best person I had ever been that close with as you will read about. Hopefully, I will describe it in such a way that whoever reads this will understand what it is that I am talking about.
I truly wish I had more time with Annie Griffin Samoles because I would have liked her to come over to my home and my business because she would have made it a lot better for me in my life without a doubt. I am ashamed that she never saw me make it the way that I made it. I know she would have given me the advice to keep everything going strong and straight due to her upbringing and life with her mom and her father. She was just the best person you could ever talk to and discuss any possible issue you may have had in your life.
Like I had been saying, everyone including her sisters and brothers knew what a tremendous person she was. Unfortunately, she passed away way to soon, and I know why—due to my jerk of a father and his sister and one of his friends who came over to her home in Beachwood, New Jersey, to have some drinks.
However, the conversation turned over to my asshole father, and this fat woman said, “Joe, do you remember Mary, the girl you were giving all those free rides? She just gotten married.”
So I said, “What are you talking about?” and she said Pops had a girlfriend, which turned my mother’s smile into a death look at that son of a bitch, piece of shit; so I stopped the party and threw them all out and comforted my mom for a little while, then I had to go to work. I do not mean to ramble, but that is exactly what happened to my mother!
In the beginning, when I was born, at that point in time it had become a major issue for Mom because I needed surgery to stay alive; so the second I came out of Mom, the surgeon immediately had to operate on me to save me due to my life-threating issue within the stomach. The surgeon had to perform an operation on me to save my life. So the operation was to begin in approximately one and a half hours, and it was a major operation that I needed to have. He had to be perfect to save this kid’s life. He had to operate immediately on John for his life. As the day went on, the surgeon was extremely successful with the life-threating surgery, so John was now in the recovery room for many hours with a long scar across his stomach, which John, being a tough person, went through this like a hot knife thrown on a stick of butter.
Anyway, Pops was nowhere to be found as my Mom started to get pissed off at this fucking failure. His son was just born with a major problem, and this guy was nowhere to be found. As John always is a strong and successful person, so was his mom as well. As the doctor admitted, the surgery went very well, and he expected nothing but a healthy John moving forward. The surgeon was hanging around the next day just to check on John, and he stopped in to see Annie and just tell her really quickly that her son was very strong to have handled that surgery so well he should be okay very soon, in about a month or two. Mom thanked him for being there when we needed him, and he said it was his pleasure to get the kid the help he needed.
My mom made the most out of nothing at all. I have heard so many people say however this woman was. For real, she made a lot of mistakes; however, I believe she was always trying to get it right with her life. She taught me who to respect, whom I should look out for, as well as all the other shit that can and will slow you down. She went out of her way to teach me how to achieve in this fucking life, and for a while I did with her blessings until I could no longer do it with any family member, or even the daughter I produced with Silva many years ago. Life is a very hard thing to keep on doing what you believe is correct. There are just too many people trying to move you in the wrong direction, but you must believe in somebody, and that person is my mom!
At one point in Mom’s life she was being chased after by the star of hit show, Hawaii Five-O Show. I am sorry I forgot his name—Jack Lord, I believe it was. However, Mom was just too busy for Jack at that particular time. Anyway, I cannot imagine how she ended up with my father. Unreal? My mother knew what she was doing most of her adult life. With her very few problems, she was the most supportive person I still have ever met in my life. She would give you anything you needed; however, she wanted to see a person surviving, doing the right thing in life. In life, you really need to try to do the right thing every day. If you do, then most issues go away. That is one of Mom’s secrets that she taught me growing up.
Back when I was a little kid, growing up, I used to go crabbing and fishing with Pops as well as Jupe, my older asshole brother. Jupe is my nickname for this asshole. So we would bring about six traps and about the same amount of drop