In 1981 Sam had decided to retire from the air force after 22 yrs.  He put in his retirement papers and was preparing to move himself into civilian life, when he got a life altering phone call from a friend in personnel.

A posting had come up for his pay grade in England.His friend knew it was the one place in Europe Sam had always wanted to be posted to. He said if Sam pulled his retirement papers he would do what he could to make sure Sam got the posting... Sure enough the orders came through and Sam said goodbye to his mother who would be remaining behind this time at his brother Jim's house in California. The last thing his mother said to him before he left ,was that he would meet some nice English girl and get married.  Sam who at almost 42 had never been married  laughed off the remark and left for England. Mid-flight his orders were changed and when he landed he found that instead of going to High Wycombe, he was going to RAF Greenham Common. 

With base housing in short supply he rented a house in Grove near Wantage and made friends with his new neighbors Phyllis and Stan. He became such good friends with them that they threw a joint birthday party on February 23rd 1982 for their daughter Tina and Sam whose birthdays fell either side of that date. Fate took a hand again and the night of the party came and with it the introduction to Marie.

Sam and Marie talked , laughed and danced that night and he  took her back to her home in Wantage.  Next morning at 8am he knocked on her front door and armed with flowers, chocolates, and three toy trucks there he stood on the doorstep on his birthday waiting for her to open the door. Where he got all those things on a Sunday morning, at that hour in England; on  a day when almost everything is closed except for newspaper shops ,to this day we do not know.

He invited her and her three small boys to join him for brunch at the NCO club at the base at RAF Upper Heyford. She agreed to go with him and so began their journey through life together.

On March 24th when they had been seeing each other and known each other for just one month Sam asked Marie to become his wife. They were married on July 24th 1982 at the United Reformed Church in Newbury Berkshire England . A reception was held at RAF Upper Heyford NCO club which when Sam went to pay the bill , they informed him that it was already paid courtesy of his unit the 501st Security Police Unit. A one night honeymoon followed in a 300yr old thatched cottage close to the base.. Sam did not want to miss his new son Simon's 2nd birthday on July 26th.  

They were very happy in their life together...Sam adopted all three boys in march of 1984 and they got their new middle and last names. Simon told the judge he did not look like a judge so that gentleman went into his robing room and put on his judges robes and wig. More changes came for Marie and the boys when Sam got his orders posting him to Castle AFB California ,USA.  On June 10th 1984 the family left England on the first leg of their journey to their new posting. After landing in New York they drove cross country to California stopping to see the sights and visit family members along the way..Every where they were posted it became a long running joke with his Unit that if you wanted to know how old Smsgt Cook's wife was just ask him how long he had been in the air force.

In 1987 The family moved back to Oxford , England and were there for 6 years until they returned to the USA and took up residence in Idaho in 1993.  Tragically fate was to intervene one more time. Having retired from the US Air Force and looking forward to many more years together, tragically Sam died from a massive heart attack on December 16th 1997 at their home on 6th street in Spirit Lake ID. They were married for 15yrs 6mths.