“It’s been an incredibly difficult time for the family,” Sam said, “Tay-Sachs is such a terrible disease because there’s nothing we can do.
Marley can’t sit up by himself, and he can’t really see.”
Sam, who was born in Clapton and grew up in Hackney, celebrated his 100th birthday surrounded by members of his family and friends at a favourite restaurant of his with a singer hired for entertainment, arranged by his two “wonderful” sons.
Sam Green and his great grandson, Marley, who was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease[Missing Credit]
“It worked out very nicely. Everyone had a lovely time, and I got a letter from the chief rabbi as well as from the King and Queen,” he said. He was “very pleased” to receive the letters, despite the Royal household insisting he be recognised by the name of Samuel not Sam. “I’ve been known as Sam for 95 years, but the King wasn’t having it,” he said.
It was not Sam’s first brush with royalty, having witnessed as a ten-year-old boy outside Buckingham Palace the Silver Jubilee of Queen Mary and King George V, who rode past him in an open carriage not 20 yards away, a year before the King’s passing.
In another Forrest Gumpian-coincidence of history, Sam also remembers an episode when he was 14 and working in his first job in London’s East End. A crowd of children suddenly started filling the street.
“Who are all these children going past my window? And where are they going?” he recalls wondering. “All someone told me was they had just come from Liverpool Street Station from Germany. It wasn’t until quite a bit later I found out their significance. They were Jewish children arriving on the Kindertransport.” Sam’s first job was in commercial arts, before he moved on to stonemasonry in a career that lasted more than 80 years. He now boasts of having, as well as two sons, three granddaughters and three great-grandsons.
Sam, who attributes his longevity to “pure luck”, will also mark his milestone birthday on Tuesday at Woodford Forest United Synagogue, courtesy of Jewish Care, and on Thursday at his own shul, Chigwell United Synagogue.
[Missing Credit]Sam Green at his 100th birthday party with a card from the King and Queen
Foregoing presents and requesting people instead donate to the CATS foundation, Sam says it feels “lovely” to have raised a figure well above his target. “I can’t quite believe it, and I’m of course very thankful indeed to the people who have donated,” he said.
Sam’s granddaughter is The Only Way is Essex star Courtney Green who, posting to Instagram following the news of her nephew Marley’s diagnosis, said the family is “beyond heartbroken”.
“It’s hard to find the words; this has taken a lot of strength for my family to speak about,” she wrote, adding, “every day we are praying for a miracle.”
An episode of Towie was dedicated to Marley.
Tay-Sachs disease, which usually starts when a child is between three and six months old, is most common in people of Ashkenazi Jewish descent.
To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/page/sam-green-fundraiser-for-the-cats-foundation
