Rose Yolle Sam

Obituary

Sunrise         

   Yolle was born on August 17, 1940 in Port-de-Paix, Haiti, to Frida Calim (nee Abegg) and George Calim.  She was the second oldest of five (5) siblings: Marie Claude, Ernst, Elder, Alva, and Jacqueline.   At six, Yolle and Marie Claude moved to Port-au-Prince to finish her primary education, attending boarding school at Lalue Catholic School.  Her brother Ernst remembers her as a young girl who loved reading, farming and animals.  He remembers that for a long time she had a dog named Milky who was her bodyguard and did not leave her side.  After completing her primary education at Lalue, she returned to Port-de-Paix, where she studied at Modern College for her secondary education.  This is where in 1960 she met her future husband, who recalls being immediately smitten by her beauty, radiance and brilliance in math.  They would become inseparable for the following 62 years, with only death doing what space, time, sickness and hardship could not do.  By 1960, she had already formed and exhibited the traits by which she would later be known: hard-working; generous; serious; responsible; mature; and business minded.  In recognition of her acumen, her father entrusted her with running the family business in his absence.  She also gained the trust of her great-grand father Charles Abegg, who saw in her a rising star in the business.  She was fast becoming a very successful businesswoman in Haiti, with limitless possibilities awaiting her future.

            In 1963, as a young 23 year old woman, she gave up the prospect of a thriving business in Haiti, the comfort of family and home, and her future husband, then her Fiancé, language and custom, to seek independence and a new life in New York.  She had wanted to study nursing or medicine, but in New York work awaited her. In 1964, she was joined in New York by Fritz.  On March 16, 1964, a few months, later, they were married.  They quickly made their marks in New York, buying real estate two years later: first a 6-Family property in Bushwick, New York; then 5 years later a 16-unit building in Bedford Stuyvesant; and then the property at 229th Street, Laurelton.  Later they purchased a NYC Medallion Taxi, with which they provided for their family. 

            Rose and Fritz had four children in quick succession: first Alva, then Fritz, and then Marly. Pascal came years later.  She raised her four children in the family home at 229th Street.  Her house became the gathering place for the neighborhood children, and family. She helped create in Laurelton a special place, a thriving Black middle class neighborhood, en par with any neighborhood in NYC, where the children roamed the leafy streets, feeling safe and secured, making life-long friends, who remain close and supportive of each other.

            Her generosity knew no bounds. Her home was open to anyone in need of help: Family members; neighbors; friends, church members; et.al. She would give anyone in need her last penny. What drove her selfless generosity for her children and family was surely her deep love for them. But what explains her generosity to complete strangers was something else: she was a true egalitarian.  She truly believed that we are all equal, and this drove her radical politics, religion and values. She did not believe in hierarchy.  She rebelled against all labels. She hated pretensions. She wanted to get to the heart of people. She wanted everyone to know that they were welcomed and loved.

                Later in life, she dreamed of returning to her beloved Haiti, to live a simpler life, to be closer to her native land.  She talked about return to farming. She wanted so much to return that neither earthquake, political turmoil, nor a global pandemic would dent her determination.  She and her husband were building their little place under the sun, with fresh air, where they would live the rest of their lives in each other’s company.

SUNSET

                On Saturday, October 1, 2022 at approximately 5:12 pm, our Rose Yolle Sam passed away, surrounded by her husband, Fritz Sam, who never left her side during her last days, her children and grandchildren, her sister, brother, nieces and nephews, and other family members and friends.  Her death shattered the little oasis our family enjoyed in this increasingly turbulent world, an oasis forged mainly through Yolle’s sheer will, hard work and unflinching determination.  Her passing was both shocking and unimaginable to us.  Her medical condition deteriorated quickly.  In a flash, we went from talking about dinner with her to taking turns sitting vigil by her bed side in the ICU.  Life then changed for us in an instant.  Her absence leaves us without our guiding light, our lodestar.  Her death was and remains unimaginable and unfathomable.  Yolle was strength personified. She drove a Yellow Cab in the mean streets of New York City for more 50 years.  No small task for a woman now, and especially 50 years ago.  Yolle was the embodiment of unbendable will.  On multiple occasions, she was held up at gunpoint, but unshaken she was right back at work the next morning.  She was a woman of indomitable spirit.  She left a life of privilege in her beloved Haiti, to seek independence as a young woman of 23 years of age in New York City.  She knew no limits.  She would not let pain, adverse conditions, hardships, barriers limit or defeat her.  She knew one way to go: to forge ahead.  Time and time again, she would go beyond the impossible.   She was like a Phoenix.  One day, gravely ill, a few days later on her feet, and back at work, smiling her warm radiant smile, and dismissing your concerns for her with a wave of her hand.   This time was different.  She knew it too.  Death stalks us all.  As we tried to cheer her up, to remind her of the millions of battles she has fought and won, she would say that “I am so tired.”  Still, she did not go gently into that good night.  She loved her husband dearly, her children, and grandchildren immensely, and the life she had built, brick by brick, immeasurably.  Her body may have succumbed, but not her spirit.  Not her will.  Not her determination.  She wanted to hold tightly to her family and life.  She was a fighter till the very end.

                Yolle lived to witness the fruits of her life’s hard work: she cared a bit about the financial success of her children and their spouses, but what she truly cherished most was her grandchildren: to be surrounded by them, and to hear their boundless happiness and joy.  She had this aplenty. 

                Yolle leaves to mourn her passing: Mr. Fritz Sam, her husband of nearly 60 years, her daughters, Alva Sam, Bella, Kalie, and Skyler, her sister, Alva and his spouse, her brother Ernst and his spouse, nieces and nephews, her aunt, cousins and a hosts of family and friends.

            To her children and grandchildren, she wanted nothing more than for you to be kind, do good, and to work hard at everything you undertake.

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