Samuels coping after 7 family members die from COVID-19
Avery Samuels know what to do.
As he lay on his bed at home in Philadelphia, the Stetson offensive lineman had a decision to make. He had two options: return to school for his sophomore season or put on hold the game he loved so dearly.
His thoughts drifted. He couldn’t get out of his head the toll coronavirus already had taken on his family.
Seven members of Samuels’ extended family died after contracting COVID-19. He wondered if he was next.
“The first family member was my dad’s cousin, who was a police officer, who was more like an uncle to me. He was the first Philadelphia city worker to get the virus and die from it,” Samuels said of 59-year-old Capt. James Walker, who was getting ready to retire from the force when he turned 60 in October. “His death really hit me the hardest because he had gotten it one week and the next week, he already passed away from it.
“For the next couple of weeks, I wasn’t really sure how to cope with it. I just stayed in my house and I couldn’t really see my friends. It was just sort of me [and] my thoughts. I was really down for a bit.”
The deaths kept coming. A couple of cousins, then a couple more. Samuels already was trying figure out if he should put himself at risk by returning to the football field. He talked with his parents, Angela and Walter Samuels, who will celebrate their 29th wedding anniversary Monday.
Ultimately, however, this decision was his to make.
“He’s very deeply intelligent … He’s a mature kid for his age,” Stetson coach Roger Hughes said of the 19-year-old Samuels, who called Hughes in July to tell the coach he was concerned about returning to school. “He’s a very quiet kid, so you’d never know these things about him. … And then he’s also very, very huge in stature [6-foot-3, 330 pounds], and when you meet a person like that, you tend to think that they think a certain way.
“And then he starts to talk, and you realize what a deep thinker he is and how intelligent he is. Measured is a word that comes to mind, but he thinks things through and plans things out … that type of stuff.”
As it turned out, all of Samuels’ thinking didn’t matter. The Pioneer Football
did
not
League decided last week to postpone the 2020 season until possibly the spring semester. But Samuels already had made his choice.
“With us getting closer to the season and before they had actually canceled everything, I called coach Hughes and I told him I wasn’t really comfortable coming back,” Samuels said. “I know we’re young and it’s supposed to be different, but it was really hard, and I was struggling with all of that.
“I had been thinking about it for a couple of months. I just decided it was best for me to opt out this season and then come back next year … and work out with the team and then play next season.”
Before his uncle died in early April, Samuels didn’t expect coronavirus to hurt his family so deeply.
“I remember during spring break, when [COVID-19] started to pick up, I honestly thought it would be over in a couple of weeks,” Samuels said. “I’m a young person and I was sort of blowing it off, but once my uncle passed, I really started taking it serious.
“I was like, ‘This is something you can’t play around with.’ “
Even his uncle’s positive test results didn’t necessarily faze him.
“I had heard other people had recovered from it,” Samuels said. “My uncle worked out a lot and was a healthy dude, so I felt like he’d probably be all right.”
Sanuels’ mother said the family’s faith in God has given them strength amid so much loss.
“We are very faithful, and I prayed about this a lot,” Angela Samuels said. “When Avery decided, ‘OK,
I think I’m gonna opt out this year, at first he was unsure. So I told him, ‘Pray about it. You’ll get your answer.’ “
The seven family members who died ranged in age from 57 to the early 70s.
“It hurts, but we got through it,” Angela Samuels said. “Imagine going through this and not being able to support your family. That, to me, was the hardest part.
“But I think, through prayer, it brought us through. The lives they lived were good lives, but unfortunately it was their time and we couldn’t celebrate each individual the way we would have.”
The Samuels family, which is large and closeknit, could not bury their loved ones properly. Public gatherings were not allowed in their area and so funerals could not be held.
“We weren’t even allowed to be together or mourn together,” Avery Samuels said. “So, you had to find a way to deal with it all on your own, in a way. I know for my dad, it really hit him hard because he grew up with [his cousin].”
Beyond his faith and family, Samuels got support from the Stetson football program.
“After I made my decision not to return, my teammates, they were all really supportive and texted me and called and told me they respected what I was doing and they were there for me if needed,” Samuels said. “That meant a lot to me, knowing
Now that Samuels has been hurt by coronavirus, he’s frustrated by people who don’t seem to be taking the virus seriously.
“I’ll see people on TV talking about how they’re not going to wear masks and stuff,” Samuels said. “I feel like they just don’t understand. This is serious, but they’re kind of like I was. I’m just hoping people will start taking it more seriously.
“It does irritate me, like if I’m in a store and people aren’t wearing masks, it does bother me. I know people have rights and all that, but even if they don’t get sick, they could be passing it to someone else.”
He said if people are not personally affected by the virus, then they seem to consider it annoying and something unfairly limiting their normal routines.
“They just don’t understand,” Samuels said.
Angela Samuels said she cannot allow her son to focus on the number of family members killed by COVID-19 and that moving on is the best remedy.
“I’m not one to live in fear,” she said. “Things happen and you just have to sometimes sit back and think about the whole situation. Sometimes you have to look at the good out-weighing the bad.”
While she wants him to move forward, she did appreciate his decision to prioritize his safety and opt out of playing football for Stetson in the fall.
“My husband and I were very impressed that we have raised a young man who took this decision under his own wings and decided his health over his athletic career,” Angels Samuels said. “His passion for football, we know. We knew he was looking forward to playing his sophomore year.
“But to have him say, ‘This is what I decided to do.’ It brought tears to my eyes that my son made a decision like this. We were just so proud of him.”
Soon after Avery Samuels made his difficult choice, the Pioneer League joined him and canceled the Hatters’ football season. Samuels is grateful his teammates will now join him avoiding putting themselves at risk.
“I really do feel like they made the right decision, just to keep everyone as safe as we possibly can,” Samuels said.
that
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understood.”