Sara's footprints
story by Kreable Young
It was a normal morning for Ernie Sampson.
The owner of Sampson Coal eased into his office chair, footsteps heavy after breakfast at the Cadillac Motel Restaurant: two eggs sunny side up, three strips of bacon, two biscuits with gravy, and water. Hold the ice.
It would be about an hour until his employees arrived, but the patter of footsteps told Ernie he was not alone. Twelve cats – none of them named – filtered between his legs, over the legs of his chair and in and out of the office itself.
It was a normal morning for Ernie Sampson.
Ernie, 64, is the third generation owner of Sampson Coal, a 93-year-old coal distribution business. His grandfather started the business in 1920, died on the job site years later and passed the ownership down to Ernie’s father. Ever since, it has become tradition to not retire from work, but to die working. The next in line to inherit the business was Ernie’s daughter, Sara Michelle Sampson.
In March of 2010, Sara passed away from a rare form of liver and pancreatic cancer.
Three months after Sara’s death, Ernie’s wife, Martha, asked Ernie for a divorce. “She was just mad at the world,” Ernie says.
Severe depression fell upon Ernie soon as he heard the diagnosis of his daughter’s illness. Three years later, he still takes antidepressants once daily to deal with the pain of losing her.
Today, he lives alone, drifting through the house in which he’d raised a family and lost it all.
“When you’re pinned in that house for the weekend, the best thing to do is to sleep,” he says. “The longer you sit there, the worse it gets.”
Ernie walks back to his house alone from his farm after a long day of work.
A photo of Ernie Sampson's daughter hangs in his office as a remembrance. He says, "She sometimes shook because of her disease, and I was the only one who could put my arm around her and stop it. Everyone else would get upset because I could stop it."
Ernie Sampson visits the grave of his daughter on a Thursday afternoon. He usually visits the grave every two to four weeks.
Several of Ernie Sampson's 12 cats that live at Sampson Coal surround him before work as he waits for his employees to arrive. "I'd rather keep them than to have them out on the streets or put down by the humaine society" he says, "but if you're not gonna feed them, then you might as well not have them."
Ernie Sampson holds the anti-depressants he has been taking every morning for the past four years. He says, "I take the pills so I can talk about Sara. If I didn't take them, I wouldn't be able to talk about her."
Ernie and Lawrence Dragoo, his employee of 22 years, search for a hole on a broken hose.
Debbie Puckett, a waitress at Cadillac Motel and Restaurant on West Second Street, flirts with Ernie as he pays for his breakfast. Ernie rises at 4 a.m. daily to eat at the diner before opening his business for the day.
Ernie opens the gates of Sampson Coal at 5:30 a.m. before feeding 12 cats there and waiting for his employees to arrive at 7 a.m.
Ernie Sampsonwaits alone in his office before work on Tuesday morning.