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he survived he would have cerebral palsy.” With her
son on life-support, Samantha continued to cry out
to God. “I just felt if I could truly make a connection
with God and let my energy get in that flow with
Him, my son would come back to me like Lazarus
came back from the dead.”
At that very moment, six-year-old A.J. bounded
into the coffee shop with his baby sister, Novaleigh,
carried by Chad, Samantha’s fiancé and her
daughter’s father. A.J. tossed a bag of Legos on the
table insisting his mama look at his “invention.”
“As you can see, miracles aren’t just from Bible
times,” said Samantha smiling. “We came home on
Valentine’s Day.” She leaned forward as she said with
deep conviction, “You can look at nature and know
God exists, but there are moments when you see
Him in a personal way. And when you see a miracle,
it’s personal.” A.J. hopped down from his chair and
headed to the back room with Chad and his bag of
inventions in hand.
“The first time my dad saw A.J. was when I
facetimed him from the hospital. He had been in
California for twenty-years, but after that, he put
his house on the market, and he and my stepmom
moved here in 2013. When he came here, he gave
me $5000 left from the sale of his house and said,
‘Sam, this is all I have. I don’t know if you can do
anything with it, but I believe in your dream.’” Her
“dream” was to open her own coffee shop. Samantha
was actually finishing up a business degree from STC
when A.J. got sick. “I had already mapped out a tenyear
plan.”
With only her father’s confidence in her and the
$5000, Samantha did the impossible. In October
2013, she opened S’Moore Coffee Shop and invited
our community into her dream. The goal was simply
to be a place where people could gather and share
a great cup of coffee and conversation. The first
location for the coffee shop was on 102 Southwest
Main in Vidalia. A year later, she moved to her
present location at 114 Church Street. “Part of our
success was in allowing the business to grow before
upgrading equipment,” said Samantha. “We’ve added
Green Tea Frappes and Iced Tart Berry Lemonade
recently, and we are adding more new flavors all
the time. She’s also able to put that culinary degree
to work with fresh baked goods made daily from
scratch.
“Do you still have trouble from the injury?” I
asked.
Samantha pointed toward the beautiful wood
counter. “My dad, Chad, and I made that together a
week ago. I’m still moving slow from all the physical
work, but I’ll be fine. It just takes some time for me
to recover when I overdo it.” Chad returned from the
other room for Novaleigh. His daughter smiled as he
lifted her up. His love for both children was obvious.