gave Samantha an
opportunity to learn the
legal process of things
in the Marine Corps,
which she enjoyed. The
change of environment
was also an opportunity
to return to two things
she had always enjoyed:
making great coffee
and baking. “I had
loved baking since I
was a child, so I started
baking again and
brought my espresso
machine to the office,”
she said. Word quickly
got around. “Officers
began dropping by for
the coffee and baked
goods.” Samantha even
used the opportunity to
raise money for various
functions like the
Marine Corps Ball.
Samantha’s time of
enlistment was over in
June 2010. What was
supposed to be twenty
years of service had been only four. Two weeks later, she
was taking classes at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School
in Scottsdale, Arizona. It was a time of endings and new
beginnings both in her career and personal life. By the time
she was finished with culinary school, she found herself far
from family and ending a broken marriage.
The disappointment and heartbreak of giving up
her dream of a career in the Marines followed by a
failed marriage led to a season of disillusionment and
an unplanned pregnancy. “I’d wanted to get pregnant
when I was married and couldn’t. Now, here I was single
and pregnant.” Even so, she said, “Regardless of the
circumstances, I believed this baby was a blessing.”
Samantha was only eleven weeks pregnant when she
awoke one morning to discover her baby’s father had
taken his life. “The suicide made no sense,” she said. “He
was so excited about the baby. But I had known from the
beginning that he had a dark and troubled past. I just
always thought I could save him. But suicide is something
you never expect.”
40 Toombs County Magazine
Perhaps it was her
training as a Marine or
simply the resilience
she gained as a child
picking tobacco in the
South Georgia heat,
whatever the reason, it
was enough to turn her
heart away from her own
sorrow to focus on the
baby growing inside of
her. No, she could not
control another’s choices,
so she grabbed ahold of
what she could control
for herself. “I could turn
to medication or drugs,
or I could trust God to
help me. I was not going
to let anything, not even
depression, affect this
baby.”
On November 3,
2012, Samantha gave
birth to a beautiful and
healthy baby boy she
named Antonio Justin
(A.J.). Three months
later, after moving to
Vidalia, the unthinkable happened. “I’d run to town to
pick up something for supper, when the babysitter called
and said something was wrong with A.J. I immediately
rushed home.” The ER felt his symptoms where due to
dehydration and sent her home with instructions to give
him Pedialyte.
When she returned to the ER a second time, A.J. was
immediately put on oxygen and life-flighted to Savannah.
As soon as Samantha arrived, she was told to call her
family. “I kept asking, ‘Why?’ I didn’t understand. Finally,
someone said to me, ‘Sweetie, your son may not make
it.’” In that moment, it was as if the last domino had been
tipped over, and every piece of her life was crashing down
with it. “I just hit the floor and called out to God,” she said.
The hospital performed test after test. A CT scan
showed A.J. had experienced a subdural hematoma. “They
didn’t know if the hematoma caused him to have seizures
or the other way around,” said Samantha. “At this point,
he had already started going into septic shock. The lack of
oxygen was so severe, I was told that best case scenario, if
“I had loved baking since I was a child, so I started baking again and
brought my espresso machine to the Office" said Samantha.