By Mikayla van Loon
Known to most in the Mount Evelyn community simply as Amigo, the kindness of one man rippled across hundreds and has shown the power of regarding each and every person as a friend.
Sam Abounajm, was more than the Red Robin Milk Bar owner, he was a family man, a loving father, dedicated husband, a confidant, a community member and an immigrant twice over.
The real life Wonka of the small, hilly township was endlessly positive, spreading joy, love, a warm smile, some humour and of course lollies with all who walked through his shop front door.
With Sam’s sudden passing on Monday 12 August came shockwaves and an outpouring of support for his wife Sue and children Nina and Will.
Remembering their father as the kindest, most hardworking person they knew, Will said he didn’t just do that for his own children but for so many others in the community.
“He’s the hardest working person I’ve known. He’s never taken a day off but he never complained about the hours. He was very positive naturally,” Will said.
“He would never mention anyone in a negative light, that’s why people looked up to him as a person. He was such a strong, fatherly figure to a lot of us men from 20 to 40 who grew up around the shop.”
Nina said her father’s generosity spanned beyond just giving to people, he was “generous with his beautiful smile, generous with his laugh” too.
“He had the warmest heart, the biggest heart, and he genuinely cared about people. He was really humanistic and he could feel anyone’s pain,” she said.
“He had this gift of being able to know what to say to each person, whether they were young or, a child or teenagers or adults or seniors.
“He made everyone feel special and important, and it didn’t matter if he saw you every day, or if he saw you once, you were all important.”
Born in Lebanon, Sam was one of many migrants who travelled to South America, settling in Venezuela.
It’s there that he met his wife Sue, setting up businesses and starting a family.
“Then in the 80s, Venezuela was becoming extremely unstable, so they decided to migrate to Australia with their young family,” Nina said.
First arriving in Australia, the couple worked opposite shifts at different factory jobs, with Sam doing the night shift at the Buttercup bread factory and Sue working day shifts at a large sewing factory.
Over two years they saved enough money to then open their own milk bar in East Doncaster just as it was starting to develop.
“They did that with little English and they learned everything along the way. That’s the magic about my parents,” Nina said.
“I always think they were migrants twice from Lebanon to Venezuela at a very young age, they grew up there and then started again in two languages. For me, that’s resilience.
“They were always seeking a better future for us.”
After a year and a half in East Doncaster, the family moved to Croydon North, opening a milk bar and Amigo’s Charcoal Chicken shop.
In early September, it will be 24 years since Sam took over the running of Red Robin in Mount Evelyn.
“This was his life, seven days a week. He’d wake up at five o’clock and from 5.30 he’d be in the shop, even though it says it’s a 6.30 start and he used to close at 9.30, now it’s nine, seven days a week, 24 years here,” Nina said.
Having been immersed in the South American culture of friendship and camaraderie for many years, Nina said this was something her father latched on to when arriving in Australia as well.
“When we came to Australia, he realised there was a culture of mateship and he was like ‘Oh, I know that’. It’s the same thing as amigo in Venezuela and South America. So that carried through.”
Never setting out to be a lolly shop, Nina said the progression happened naturally.
“People would come in asking for a certain lolly and dad was always thinking, how can I keep this milk bar alive? They’d ask and he’d go, ‘I’ll get onto it’. It just happened,” she said.
“We’ve got English lollies, we’ve got some New Zealand lollies. We’ve got some American stuff and Dutch stuff. That was the process and it just got bigger.
“Mind you, he doesn’t use the internet, he doesn’t Google stuff. He doesn’t have a mobile phone. He just does it with talking, his relationship skills. He always surprised me with his ability to find new suppliers.”
But Nina said that was his charm, talking, networking and always paying it back to others who helped him.
And while day-in-day-out Sam was ready to work, Will said he never overlooked his family.
“He would deliberately find shops with houses behind them and I would always ask him ‘what’s the situation with that’ and he would say ‘I want to see you guys running around’.
“He wanted to keep us around, he was that family oriented and he was just one of the hardest working sweethearts.”
Stories of Sam’s love and kindness flooded social media in the days after his death. And with permission, Star Mail has chosen some of these stories from the 85 that were shared.
“I loved how every time I walked in he’d always say ‘hello my friend’ so genuinely, and was always so generous to the kids who would walk out beaming because they’d received a free lollypop from Amigo!”
“If he only had two packs of kindling he would only sell you one, just in case another person was needing some heat that night.”
“What I loved about Sam was he always made me laugh. He was always cheeky.”
“One of this world’s very rare true gentlemen and a genuine caring soul.”
“I hadn’t been in the shop for about 15 years, but the day I went back in it was like I had been there yesterday. Couldn’t believe he had remembered me from when I was a teenager!”
“Amigo always made us feel like we were his most special customers and cherished friends. A feeling he gave to everyone. What a superpower he had. He gave away more love than lollipops, and he gave away A LOT of lollipops.”
“When my children and I walked in for our weekly visit, as per normal I was so kindly greeted with the most amazing smile and pure happiness in his voice, I said ‘how are you my friend?’ and he responded with ‘I am great, the sun is shining, I have my beautiful wife and my children, what more could I want’ and he then looked at my children and said ‘you are very lucky too’ and he couldn’t have been more right.”
“Walking into the shop was like walking into your friend’s house, you just felt his warmth and kindness, he always wore a smile, he always gave our kids extra lollies and joked that he was going to eat half of them. You walked away smiling no matter what kind of day you’d had.”
“He was the nicest man and an incredible part of our amazing town. An absolute ray of sunshine. He greeted everyone as his friend, with a big smile. ‘Amigo! How are you my friend?’ It could have been your first time in the shop but he’d make you feel like you’d known each other for years. He always made us laugh and smile and feel happy. He was such a kind, genuine and caring person. He loved everybody and everybody loved him.”
“Sam and Sue used to own the milk bar at McAdam Square, Croydon, opposite Luther College. They sent their kids to Luther same timing as our boys. So we got to know them well regularly popping in to buy something. After our boys finished schooling, we bought an acreage property back in Mt Evelyn, only to find Sam and Sue had moved to the Red Robin Milk Bar/General Store. Sam was one of the loveliest, kindest, and most gentle people you could ever hope to meet. Always a friendly greeting… ‘hello Amigo’ every time you walked in the shop. He was a huge icon in our town…. revered by so many.”
Because of Sam’s simple acts of kindness, a town of people, over multiple generations, felt special.
Returning just part of that support, a GoFundMe set to a $5000 target raised over $20,000 in just a few days.
The impact Sam had on Mount Evelyn can not be overstated.
“It’s been overwhelming to see that he loved everyone and cared for everyone, but it’s just been poured back. He knew he was loved, because the kids loved him, and he always said, ‘the kids are so pure’ but not to this extent.
“I just want to thank you all, because if it wasn’t for all of our community, I don’t think we could have gotten through the shock of it. And because we don’t have any blood relatives here, everyone’s overseas, everyone’s carried us through.”
Nina and Will said the shop was their dad’s happy place and so, despite Sam not physically being around, he was still there in every other way.
“We’ll continue it because dad’s here. We love it, and we love the community. So we’re definitely going to continue his legacy because this is what he loves.”
