Born in Somalia, Samra Iman came to the United States as refuge running from the violence there. As a young child Samra lived in Texas, then moved to Minnesota in her teens. She graduated from Richfield High School. She was planning to go to college and get a good job, but couldn’t afford it at the time.
Samra was a gentle, unassuming, beautiful woman. She didn’t care about fashion or the hyped cosmetic industry things, just naturally beautiful. She had a laugh that was loud and a smile that was bright .
Samra loved food, especially spicy food. Her favorite breakfast food was the pizzas I would doctor up with all kinds of good things!!! She also loved professional football, yup all those men in tights, and would watch all the games she could throughout the season!!! Of course, you can't forget “The Simpsons“, which I think, she had seen every episode at least twice!
She was proud of her heritage and her family. She absolutely loved her niece and nephew in Texas. Samra never wanted special treatment, seldom asked for anything, and complained when I tried to assist, saying I needed to take care of my issues and she felt bad to take money etc. I said that some day she could repay me if and when I needed help.
She tried so hard to make me proud of her and to prove to some that she could succeed. ( I was so proud, and I knew she could succeed, with just a little help)
When something bad would happen in the world she would repeat a recent quote, “ Why can’t we all just get along?”
Her family is scattered all over the world, with many of them living in the U.S. Her immediate family is living in Texas, Minnesota and of course Kenya.
Samra also had an aversion to the medical field, doctors, hospitals, emergency treatment areas etc. She hated going to appointments to give blood and to have tests done. She literally fought with EMTs to not go to into the ambulance and to emergency rooms. She hated taking her medicine for seizures as she said she didn’t like the way it made her feel. The actual seizures were UGLY, VIOLENT, DESTRUCTIVE events. Just the opposite of the lovely person they were affecting.
I met Samra around September of 2006, while doing “light duty office work“ in my rehabilitation for work injuries. She was a temp worker in the same department.
Quick to laugh and a lovely smile, I knew we were going to be friends immediately! I had no idea then, how she would become such a huge part my life.
She had fallen on tough times the fall of that year, after having lost her job dealing with the early treatment of her seizures. I tried to help by renting an apartment for a month while she looked for work.
But, by the end of November 2006, things had not improved ... meanwhile during the month of November, I had her over to my house several times and we became very close. She moved into my home in December of 2006. Samra helped me during my recovery from back surgery, while she was looking for work. At that time she had a car (don’t know if she was supposed to drive) and found some temp jobs.
Finally she got a decent job, but it was as a night auditor and of course her hours sucked! I started back to work flying in May of 2007 and she really didn’t like to be in my home all alone while I was overseas. We talked via skype whenever I could make a connection to her to help while I was gone!!!
We shared some very special times together, even had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal the following year after I came home from Tokyo 5 hours late! Shortly after that, she lost the night job and was very upset and sad. I convinced her to go home to Texas to see family and after doing that, she found work there and moved back to where most of her family lived, and as a young child she had grown up. I was both happy and sad of course because by then I had fallen in love with her. Long before that point I had decided that one of my goals in life was to make her life better!
She had already saved quite a bit of money, but once in Texas she was able to save enough money to make a trip of a lifetime early in the spring of 2009. To Africa to see her mother and family there. It was an incredible time for her and lots of stories and pictures came back with her. Unfortunately when she came home the job situation in Texas and around the country was in really poor shape. After 6 months of trying to find work in Texas, she gave in to my suggestion to come here to Minneapolis on the first weekend in October 2009 and try to get started over. She found a job only after being here 3 weeks and was going to begin training when her illness took her.
Epilepsy Foundation of Minnesota
http://www.efmn.org/
Donations to Epilepsy Foundation
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