Altogether<br/>4307 Vineland Road, Suite H-17-19, Orlando, FL 32811<br/>For more information, visit our website at <a href='www.altogetherfuneral.com'>www.altogetherfuneral.com</a><br/>Copyright © 2025 FPG Intermediate Holdco, LLC

Dear Sam,


We wish the contents of this letter could have been definitively known to you, and could have played a greater role in your last spontaneous decision.  The decision that has torn a hole in our hearts and our perception of time, suspending our minds and thoughts in that instance when we first heard the worst imaginable news.  The news of how we would never laugh with you again, joke around about the silliest of things, call you by your nickname, or just know that you are always somewhere, putting a smile on someone's face and making us all think positively about life.   


Your life was full of joy and happiness, and we will always remember you as being smart, warm-hearted, content yet ambitious, adventurous, caring and generous, and most importantly, having the best personality.  They say great leaders cast large shadows - yours not only stood strong and tall, but your intense charisma left a lifetime impression with whomever you met, regardless of how long they knew you.


We always told you we loved you, but we don't believe you really knew how much you meant to us and so many others who you interacted with throughout your life.  During your Shiva, we have heard so many remarkable stories about how you have helped numerous people and kept it to yourself - we could only aspire to be more like you.  We know that you also had your flaws and although we would take issue with it at times - please rest assured that if everyone only had your imperfections, then the world would be a far better and happier place.


You were the type of person who would rather hurt herself than bring upon any form of harm to others.  That being said, we also believe that you have always been too hard on yourself.  The world is not a perfect place, yet you always felt like you may not have been good enough to fit in as you were.  But to the contrary, having been reborn, you owned and experienced the best of both worlds.  If only you knew how many of us envied you and your qualities, then maybe you would have been more open to different suggestions with which you wouldn't initially agree.  


We realized that you had taken on a huge task of coming out and transitioning your life, and you faced a lot of cruel and unnecessary intolerance and discrimination.  You even left your phone unlocked so we could see what you were dealing with.  But through your struggle, the most important thing we have tried to convey to you was that we will always love you, want you in our lives and be there for you - but, most importantly, that your health and well-being was our primary concern.


Transitioning shouldn't mean that you become careless with your health decisions - especially when you have a beautiful daughter and her future to consider.  It also shouldn't mean that you throw away your past life, but embrace it as the cornerstone of what has led you to where you are.  We loved you as both Simon and Samantha for so many countless reasons.  Although you were the middle child, to Mom and Dad, you were always the favorite - so much so, that your last action has really broken them mentally by making their worst nightmare come true.  They, much like us, will never be able to fully comprehend and accept living their life without you.


To Donna, you were always like the core pillar of a triplet, consisting of you, her and Sharon - regardless of whether you were Simon or Samantha.  Like us, she still has a very tough time dealing with your passing, overwhelmed by every type of emotion, including anger and guilt, and questioning what led you to take a wrong turn and whether we could have all done more to help and prevent it.  We know this line of thinking won't bring you back or put our minds at ease, but at the very least, it may help us to learn from your mistakes.


To Eli, you were always his 'BFF' - he always imagined you both as each others' first responder in combatting any challenges in life.  He loves to remember the happy times you spent together, whether it was during trips, parties, events or holidays, as well as those long talks and ideas you shared about the most random philosophical topics.  Although you and Eli would not always arrive at the same conclusion, he always admired your ability to sell your ideas - you were always the marketing genius in that regard.


To Ezra, you were always like a sibling.  You were the first to know about his plans with Donna.  You were also the first to welcome him to be part of our family early on, and always made him feel comfortable during family events.  


Eddie had the same experience and will always remember your huge heart and warm friendly smile, as well as your ability to never say no to anyone in need.  To Jack, you were his biggest inspiration. He holds on to so many memories with you from when he grew up - all the jokes you shared, the blue monster stories you told him, all the places you took him, and the years you both played Xbox together. He admired you for all of your kind and wonderful qualities and you will always be in his heart.


To Jamie, you were the first sister in her family.  You always took the time to ask about others, get to know them on a deeper level, and show great thoughtfulness and empathy towards them.  When in a debate, you had the strength to prove that it's not always about being right; it's about showing that you value your relationship with that person more than you value your ego.  You were never too busy to care, or to make sure every person you knew was having the best day possible.  You were always available to encourage others to be their best selves, and Jamie knows she is better for knowing you.  Her only wish is to have spent more time with you and to show you how much you are loved.  


To Karen, you were always a sounding board. She admired your personality, your endearing laugh, your drive for success, and your constant need to put others before yourself.  Above all things, you taught her to never take time with family for granted.  She has learned a lot from you and promises to always honor your memory by getting involved and supporting others.


To Sharon, you were always someone who she could count on. You would always ask about her day (as you have done for us all) and inquire about her problems and needs. You always proved to everyone what a great person you were without caring for recognition.  From your latest conversations with Sharon, you kept explaining that she shouldn't put much emphasis about what others may think; and that she should always focus on what makes her happy.  She feels like your main purpose in life was to help point us in the right direction.  You would always remind her that learning to love and respect ourselves makes it easier to love and respect others.  We just wish you were able to take some of your own advice that morning.


To Danielle, you were her best friend.  You never believed in gossip, rumors, or first impressions, but you did believe in equality: a chance to be loved and accepted.  You never disregarded a soul – no matter the skin color, monetary status, or physical appearance - and you would bring different groups of people together, always succeeding in creating a good time.  You taught everyone a great lesson: nobody is perfect, everyone has flaws, and it can feel like the world doesn't accept you.  We must start seeing a person not with our eyes, but with our hearts.  Only then will we be able to achieve what you had all these years – unconditional love for everyone.


Finally, to Talia, you were not only an amazing parent, but also the essence of her joy and happiness.  Whenever you would pull up to Mom and Dad's driveway, she would sense your presence better than any of their dogs.  As you walked through their front door, she would shout your name at the top of her lungs, and run towards you at the speed of light, just to be in your arms.  You were so gentle, loving and caring towards her to the point where she grew paranoid of you leaving and never coming back.  


Transitioning also shouldn't mean it's a race to get the fastest results, or that you set unrealistic expectations of what you need to look like or who you need to become.  You were always good at finding shortcuts within computer programming and networking, but you should have realized that trying to hack your body on your own would have detrimental consequences.  In your case, not only did it abruptly cut down your lifespan, it also feels like it shed years off of our own lives, as well.


It seemed to us like you wanted to flick a switch and not only change yourself overnight, but also instantaneously change everyone else's past, present and future thoughts of how they saw and thought of you - but, these things will always take time and lots of patience.  Some of us knew you for 30 years, which is a lot of time for our brains to process and build a personal profile of you as the amazing person we knew - so it shouldn't have been a surprise that rewiring our thoughts, memories and even pronouns of you would take some time - regardless of our best intentions.  Unfortunately, now we are forced to reprogram ourselves once more to a life where you are not present.  Although we will try to be strong, everything seems so different to us and bears less meaning.  We know you thought you were doing everyone a favor, but you incidentally achieved the exact opposite - and most likely ended up regretting it when it was too late.  We really wish you understood that ahead of time, and we could have worked together, as we frequently have done, on solving any set of problems you faced.


We also wish psychological consultations weren't such a taboo and it would eventually be treated within our society as does any regular medical consultation of any other organ of the human body.  It should be universally known that it is okay to speak with people who are trained to listen to you, to pick up on known patterns, and to offer the best advice of how to proceed - advice that very few would intuitively think of and that could have helped save you from experiencing a lot of stress and agony, as well as helped you deal with complex thoughts and emotions in a more rational way.  As your family, who loved you so much, we know Simon would never have made these types of reckless decisions, only Samantha would have. 


Although, we didn't know you as Sam for too long, we appreciated your many new qualities.  We liked that you were even more determined in your achievements - and although at times you were insecure, you quickly became attuned to your new identity.  It was like you opened your own personal Pandora's Box and all your suppressed feelings and emotions shone through for the world to see.  We really did get to experience a new side of you and we are happy you finally felt comfortable enough to share it with us.


We could only imagine you reading these words and smiling.  You continue to consume our emotions and thoughts, and we will keep thinking of the happy times we spent together so your presence within us will never fade away.  In life, everyone sometimes feels insignificant and underestimates his or her self-worth - but, we believe that had you been thinking more clearly that morning, you would have never considered entertaining such self-destructive thoughts.  Although this message did not reach you in time, it may not be too late for those who are going through similar situations - and hopefully your experience and journey could once again help others as you have done for so many.


You will forever be loved, remembered and missed - we long for the times when we could see you flick your hair and share your countless smiles.  


Love always,


Mom & Dad, Donna, Eli, Ezra, Eddie, Jack, Jamie, Karen, Sharon, Danielle and Talia



PS - We are taking it upon ourselves to help you complete your bucket list.  We may not fully succeed but we will do our best.

When words can't fully express what we want to say, sometimes a small gift can. Visit our Memorial Store for personalized gifts, keepsake jewelry and to plant a memorial tree.

We use cookies to improve your browsing experience and analyze site traffic.
<privacyLink>Privacy Policy</privacyLink>.

<firstParagraph>We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website, store your preferences, and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you. These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience.</secondParagraph>

<firstParagraph>We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.</firstParagraph><secondParagraph>The cookies that are categorized as 'Necessary' are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site.</secondParagraph>

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

Analytics

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

Functional

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

Necessary

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

Performance

Customize Cookie Preferences

Verification Successful!

New Message

The following files could not be uploaded

Ways you can honor {memorialName}'s memory:

Donation Link

Upcoming Event

Featured Mementos

Welcome Message

Select an item to highlight

Add a highlighted item

Customize which items you’d like to highlight on the memorial

Create Account

Become a Keeper

As a free {brandName} user, you will only be able to make 5 photos and videos public.

As a free {brandName} user, only the first five (5) Mementos are visible to page visitors. You can change which Mementos are public by dragging and dropping a photo or video to one of the first five positions. Upgrading to {brandName} Plus will make all 10 Mementos selected visible to the public.

All Mementos

This option is only available to Keeper Plus users.

To allow yourself and the rest of the community to view all images and videos, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of these mementos, upgrade your account to Keeper Plus.

This memento is not visible to visitors

Your community has posted {itemCount} more pictures and videos that honor {firstName}'s memory. To view them all, and to enable everyone to download their own copy of each, this account will need to upgrade to Keeper Plus.

View all images and videos with Keeper Plus

Our Obituary Assistant helps you craft a meaningful life story in minutes. Review and edit every detail, and unlock more features with Keeper Plus.

Obituary Assistant

Spend as much time as you need working on your Memorial page before it is visible to the public, and much more, when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Save Page as Draft

Create unlimited event pages and unlock a suite of powerful features to help you seamlessly coordinate event details, invites, and more when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Event

Create a full picture of your loved one’s community and add unlimited family and friends to Loved Ones when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Loved One

Create unlimited Memorials — and unlock unlimited images and videos, event pages, and advanced privacy settings — to help you keep memories alive when you upgrade to Keeper Plus.

Memorial Page

Add unlimited Stories to highlight the all the things that made your loved one unique, from milestones, images, albums, documents, locations, and much more.

Highlight Stories

Upgrading to Keeper Plus means you can add additional Keepers to help you gather Mementos and tributes, approve content, build out a family tree, and tell {firstName}' story on Keeper.

Invite Keepers with Keeper Plus

Upload and display unlimited photos and videos, use unlimited Story templates to highlight key moments, and allow friends and family to download their own copies when you upgrade to Keeper Plus. 

Better Mementos with Keeper Plus

To access memorial related configurations that control the display of the banner upgrade to Keeper Plus.

This configuration  is not available on your current plan

Create a meaningful link path to add a personal touch to {firstName}'s memorial.

Custom Memorial link

Gift Messages

SENDING AS A GIFT?

Cart

About 1-800 Flowers

"Flowers were beautiful and they arrived in time before the funeral. Thank you and will purchase more in the future.!"

Hearing Tears

"Beautiful flowers, I've always enjoyed sending them to my love ones for sympathy and they have always love them very much Thanks for making people feel good when receiving them."

Sympathy

"This was true to the photo and good to know family took arrangement after the service."

Beautiful arrangement.  Perfect size for service.

Some of the great things our customers say about us

We're here to make it a little easier, with thoughtful gifts for the services & home, along with expert advice on how to be there during a difficult time.

Flowers

Gift Baskets

Express Your Deepest Sympathy

About Us

Perfect Condolence Gift

No one is meant to grieve alone

Peace and love

Product is made, packaged, and sent with love

Keepsakes

How to add your gift message

Packaging Information

Shipping information

Add a Personalized Charm to the Ornament:

Other Keepsakes

Install KeeperQR onto any headstone, urn, or other memorial in minutes.

Install

Use your phone or tablet to scan the unique code — no other tools required!

Scan

All three of our elegant KeeperQR designs are printed using durable, weather-resistant aluminum designed for indoors and outdoor use on headstones and urns, memorial benches and trees, or other monuments to your loved one’s life

Built to Last

Get <discount>50% off</discount> Keeper Plus with your KeeperQR purchase

Keeper Basic

Learn About Our Plans

Connect the physical and digital worlds to share your loved one’s life story with friends and family, no matter where they are.

KeeperQR Memorial QR Code Plaques

Planting a memorial tree or bereavement tree is a unique, environmentally conscious way to pay tribute and honor the memory of your loved one. Keeper Memorials is supporting American Forests to plant whitebark pine trees as well as thornscrub trees in select regions of the US and Canada.

Memorial Trees

KeeperQR is designed to pair seamlessly with a Keeper digital memorial. Use our FREE intuitive tools to create biographies, maps, and timelines, share photos and videos, and more with customizable features built to commemorate your loved one’s life’s story.

Powered by Keeper

Lifetime without any hidden costs or subscription traps

One time payment

Keeper is SOC2 compliant, keeping your memories safe and secure.

Data protection guaranteed

We bring your QR Codes to any corner of the globe

Worldwide Shipping

Our durable and beautiful QR code plaques create seamless connection between your loved one’s physical memorial and their digital memorial, allowing visitors to their final resting place instant access to their life legacy.

Memorial.

Honor their memory, share their story

A KeeperQR is a weather-resistant plaque with a custom QR code that links directly to your loved one’s digital memorial. When placed on a headstone, urn, bench, or tree, it allows friends and family to scan and view their life story instantly

What is a KeeperQR?

They’re built to withstand outdoor elements and adhere to most surfaces.

Where can I place the KeeperQR?

How does it work?

Frequently asked questions

KeeperQR

E-Certificate Design

Plant Memorial Trees as a Living Tribute

BRAZIL

CANADA

FLORIDA

OREGON

Memorial Project Reach

Memorial trees start at {price} per tree, with discounts for multiple trees

Our Commitment

Gift Baskets & Food

Keeper Plus

QR Plaques

Keepers Featured Products

A Greener Way to Remember

Learn about our Partners:

Help Us Complete Your Order

Remembrance Store

Through your unique link, your client can sign up for Keeper and create a Memorial for a loved one. When the Memorial page is completed by the family, it will appear on your microsite and website. You will be the main Keeper Administrator of the Memorial, along with the family member that created the page.

Invite Your Clients to Create a Memorial

Invite Families

Your Email Notifications

Notifications

Email Unsubscribe Settings

Other Settings

With your active Keeper PLUS subscription, you get unlimited access to a suite of powerful features:

Allow visitors to download a local copy of all images and videos.

Download Media

Create a custom and meaningful URL, unique to your loved one, for each Memorial page.

Editable URL

Plan public or private events and invite your loved ones.

Event Pages

Add images and create profile pages to illustrate the history and genealogy of your loved one.

Family Tree

Invite unlimited administrators to help you manage every Memorial page you have.

Keeper Administrators

Visitors enjoy unrestricted access to all uploaded images and videos.

Unlimited Media

Create unlimited Memorial pages for your loved ones.

Memorial Pages

You will be able to upload Full HD videos instead of embedded links.

Video Uploading

Your Profile

Add a business user

Edit a business user

Are you sure you want to delete these users from these brands? You will need to manually add these users again.

If the user is a part of multiple brands, you will have to delete the user from each one individually

Delete Users from Brands?

Users Settings & Notifications

Users

Are you sure you want to delete these users? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Are you sure you want to delete this user? This action will revoke their privileges across all brands.

Delete Users from all Brands?

Delete User from Brand?

Are you sure you want to delete {totalDeletes} from this user?

Delete Roles from this User?

Are you sure you want to delete this user from this brand? You will need to manually add this user again.

Delete User from this Brand?

Requires users to confirm their email every time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned OFF, Guest users do not need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published.

When Email Tribute Validation is turned ON, Guest users will need to confirm their email address before their tribute is published. They will receive an email with a confirmation link they must click.

Requires users to confirm their email only the first time they would like to share a tribute on a Memorial page.

Email Tribute Validation

If Flagged Content is turned OFF, content that has been flagged will remain public until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

If Flagged Content is turned ON, content that has been flagged will be hidden until they have been Approved or Removed from the Requests Center.

Hide Flagged Content

Language

Email Notifications

Are you sure you want to delete the Memorial for {name}? This action will permanently remove the memorial from the system.

Delete Memorial?

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned OFF, Memorials will automatically be published.

When Memorial Request Moderation is turned ON, Memorials will only be published if and when you approve them. Memorials can be published or deleted in the Requests center.

Memorial Request Moderation

Moderation Settings

This will permanently delete your account. The business account, and business page will not be deleted. To deactivate your account, there must be another admin user assigned to your organization.

Are you sure you want to deactivate this account?

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, the tribute moderation settings on Memorial pages will be hidden and other Keepers cannot override the tribute moderation settings specified by your organization.

When Override Tribute Moderation is turned ON, other Keepers can view and change the tribute moderation settings of the Memorial pages they manage. (Each Memorial page will default to the organization’s tribute moderation setting upon creation.) 

Override Tribute Moderation

If the AI Content Moderation is OFF, text areas containing profane language will be published.  Tributes can however be flagged and removed at any time.

If the AI Content Moderation is ON, text areas containing profane language will not be published and the user will receive an error message.

AI Content Moderation

When Tribute Moderation is turned OFF, Tributes will automatically be published. Once published, users can flag inappropriate or spam content. You can instantly delete any Tributes published on a Memorial that you administer.

When Tribute Moderation is turned ON, Tributes will only be published if and when you approve them. Tributes can be approved or rejected in the Requests center.

Tribute Moderation

When Tribute Validation is turned OFF, Tributes will automatically be published. Once published, users can flag inappropriate or spam content. You can instantly delete any Tributes published on a Memorial that you administer.

When Tribute Validation is turned ON, Tributes will only be published if and when you approve them. Tributes can be approved or rejected in the Requests center.

Samantha Gabay Obituary | Altogether