At age 14 life challenges took over when Sam fell down an elevator shaft suffering a traumatic brain injury leading to an addiction to pain killers. Shortly after, Sam was shot in an apparent robbery requiring months of therapy. After recovering he found work at a nearby hospital giving him new hope when in 1994 his younger brother Isaac drowned virtually footsteps from him when he slipped from a rock in the ocean, he was just 22. In 2000 Sam’s 31 year old wife Tuwan suddenly died, forcing him to become a single father with 3 small children. In 2000 he lost his big sister Hadassa whom he called his rock, she was 40.