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.”
