Samantha and Lisa Miller.Photo:Courtesy of Lisa Miller
Courtesy of Lisa Miller
Lisa Miller is still reeling from the April death of her daughter,Samantha, who on her wedding night was killed when an alleged drunk driverslammed into the golf cartshe was in with her new husband.
But the grieving mother is hoping to turn her heartbreak into action. Since her daughter’s death, she has volunteered to do some events with Mother’s Against Drunk Driving, an anti-drunk driving advocacy organization, as she tries to raise awareness about the widespread societal danger.
“I’d like to turn this into a positive,” she tells PEOPLE. “Sam would want me to do that. You are not even aware of all the tragedy that drinking and driving causes, because you only hear about the big stories, but it’s so rampant and we need to do something about it."
She adds: “Don’t say, ‘Poor Sam,’ and ‘Poor Sam’s family.’ Do something about it. Spread the awareness, talk to your friends, talk to your friends’ kids. Tell them what to do if they’re going to go out drinking, drink responsibly. Don’t mind your business because you know what? It might be your family one day.”
Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.
Samantha was killed and Aric was seriously injured shortly after they left their wedding reception.GoFundMe
Komoroski allegedly had a blood alcohol level of 0.261 percent, per the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s toxicology report,WCSC reported. The legal limit in South Carolina is 0.08.
“If you’re going to go out and drink, you make preparations of how you’re going to get home before you’re drinking,” says Lisa. “You don’t just go make the decision to sit at a bar all day and spend that money and not have enough money to take an Uber home.”
Komoroski has since been charged with one count of reckless homicide and three counts of felony DUI resulting in great bodily harm, according to online court records.
In emotional testimony,Lisa told the court, “She didn’t just kill my child. She killed all of us.”
In aGoFundMepage to assist Samantha’s family, her sister Mandi Jenkins wrote Samantha was “fearless and that’s exactly how she spent the last day of her life.”
“She was so excited to start her life with Aric,” Mandi wrote. “She had no nerves or hesitation that day. You could feel the love on the beach. But she was more than just a bride. She was a daughter, a sister, a friend to all, a mother to two cats. She was a beautiful person, inside and out, who just wanted to make the people around her smile.”
Samantha Miller and her cat, Blu.Courtesy of Lisa Miller
‘At the Wedding, She Was Just Shining’
The morning of the wedding was picture perfect: Lisa, Mandi, Samantha and Lisa’s son’s girlfriend spent the day at an Airbnb getting ready.
“We all just spent the day getting ready, drinking mimosas, and Sam was very happy,” says Lisa.
“When I got there, she was getting her hair done, and she was so calm and just beautiful, and just nothing was fazing her,” says Mandi, who says she made the couple a five layered pineapple and coconut cake for their wedding.
Samantha eventually put on her fitted lace dress. “The back was really low and it was just perfect for her,” says Lisa.
The marriage ceremony was at a pavilion on Folly Beach, the South Carolina beach Samantha walked every morning when she had a chance.
The night was unfolding in the best way possible.
Samantha and Aric.GoFundMe
“The dance floor was hopping, and everybody’s just dancing together, and Sam was in there dancing with everybody,” says Lisa.
There was even a special mother and daughter dance.
“She surprised me,” says Lisa. “The DJ announced, ‘Surprise dance for the most important person in Samantha’s life!’ I busted out crying. That tells you who she is and what relationship we had.”
The song Samantha chose was Bruno Mars' “Just the Way You Are.”
Lisa and Samantha Miller.Courtesy of Lisa Miller
Lisa wants the world to know that her daughter, who worked as an event planner, “was beautiful, but her heart was more beautiful.”
“When she lived in Utah for a year, she would get her friends to come to my house and put hearts on my door and write #loveyoumore all over my sidewalk,” she says. “It is what we used to say to each other all the time.”
Samantha, says Lisa, was this “bright light everywhere she went."
“She loved everybody unconditionally and just wanted everybody to feel good and not to ever feel bad," Lisa says. “At the wedding, she was just shining. When I looked at her a few times, it was almost like she had this light coming off her face. And the way the whole thing happened, it was almost like she was already an angel.”
source: people.com
