Teacher, social media creator and The Traitors NZ star Samantha Richards says her younger brother Nick has shaped the teacher – and person – she has become.
When Samantha “Sam” Richards and her partner Marc bought their new four-bedroom Auckland home, there was one thing they agreed on straight away – one of those bedrooms belongs to Nick.
The 27-year-old, who has Down syndrome and is largely non-verbal, lives with their parents in West Auckland. But Sam, 32, has known since childhood that one day her much-loved little brother will live with her.
“My future has Nick in it,” she tells Woman’s Weekly.
“I’ve worked harder to afford a four-bedroom house or a lifestyle where I can take him on. It doesn’t feel like a sacrifice. It just feels like being a big sister.”
A previous relationship ended when her then-partner couldn’t commit to a future that included Nick. For Sam, though, her little brother has never been a burden.
“He’s just my brother.”
Nick spent his first six months in hospital, undergoing major surgery at three days old.
“He is the best person in the whole entire world,” she enthuses.
“I’m definitely biased, but I think it’s true. He’s just pure joy. Honestly, he is joy in human form. “We, rightly or wrongly, call him the human puppy,” Sam laughs.
“The same way a puppy just wants to bounce around and be happy, be loved and to love you – that is Nick.”
A sibling bond beyond words
Sports-mad Nick loves the Warriors, basketball and McDonald’s ice cream, and is part of a Special Olympics ten-pin bowling team.
He uses a touch-to-talk app, but his family understands his expressions, sounds and handful of words. He calls Mum “Mum” and Sam “Ham” – a nickname the whole family now uses.
Nick regularly appears in Sam’s popular teacher-life social media, but watching his sister on The Traitors, he grew frustrated whenever other contestants appeared.
“He’d say, ‘I want to see Ham!’” Sam laughs at the memory.
Sam was seven when Disney’s Tarzan helped her understand what adults meant when they described Nick as “different”. Watching Tarzan question why he looked different from his gorilla mother, something clicked for her.
“This was my only experience of having a sibling,” she says.
“I didn’t know what they meant by ‘different’. I remember sitting on the couch going, ‘Oh, I get it. He’s different.’ But we still have so many things the same and we love each other. That’s enough.”
The lessons Nick taught her
Now a Year 6 teacher in her ninth year of teaching, Sam carries those lessons into her classroom.
“You have to be patient and gentle with a sibling like Nick, so I take a lot of what I’ve learned with him and what I’ve developed within myself into my teaching. I’ve learned it all through Nick.”
Having seen the difference good teachers made in their lives, Sam is keen to support Warehouse Stationery’s Thank a Teacher appeal, recognising the teachers who’ve shaped Kiwi kids’ lives, while helping children in hardship get the essentials they need to thrive at school.
Proud of her Samoan-Kiwi heritage, Sam is the only Samoan teacher at her school and feels a responsibility to represent her culture for her students. Nick is a celebrity there, soaking up fist pumps and children calling his name. During one visit, he became bored at an assembly and headed outside to shoot hoops, where a group of Year 6 girls joined him.
“They didn’t let him win,” Sam smiles.
“They just played as if he was another one of them. “Inclusion to me means everyone gets a fair shot, and a fair shot might not mean everyone gets the exact same thing because not everyone needs the exact same thing.”
A big sister’s greatest lesson
Sam sees that need in her classroom, where some children arrive without the basics. She keeps spare stationery and quietly gives students books and pencil cases with their names already on them.
“If a kid is confident, they’ll participate in class and then they’re learning,” she explains.
“Kids deserve the things they need to be successful at school.”
Lest she sound too virtuous, Sam sets the record straight.
“I can be a diva, definitely,” she laughs.
“Catch me on a bad day and I’m not nice! But I am gentle and I am patient, and I am thoughtful, and I think I am good. And it has all come from being Nick’s big sister.”
Her voice breaks as she considers whom she might have been without him.
“I simply would not be me. Everything that I’m proud of within myself, everything I like about myself, has all come from being his big sister. “All I want to be in life is to be a good big sister. He brings out the best in people and I know he’s brought out the best in me.”
Thank a teacher appeal
If you have a teacher like Sam in your life, October is the time to show them how much they mean. For one in seven Kiwi children living in material hardship, the everyday essentials for school can be hard to come by, making it tougher to take part, feel included and thrive alongside their classmates.
Create a free personalised card for a special teacher at warehousestationery.co.nz and help give another Kiwi kid the chance they deserve.
For every card sent, Warehouse Stationery donates $2 to The Salvation Army, up to $50,000, to get school essentials into the hands of children who need them.
