I woke up that fateful morning with a sense that something unexpected was going to happen. I’ve always had what I considered a sixth sense. In that, I somehow sensed when something wonderful or something terrible was going to happen.

And on that particular morning, I had a feeling that I was going to win the New Jersey lottery big time. I turned on the news, and I heard that someone had the winning ticket for the Mega Millions Lottery. I had written down my numbers and posted them on the corkboard over my computer desk.

I had decided to put the lottery ticket in my mini-safe in my home office. When I heard the numbers that won, I checked the paper that I written the lottery numbers on the bulletin board. They were identical. I got a chill that ran up my back. I felt faint. I won. I hurried over to the safe and opened the safe to look at the lottery ticket. The lottery ticket wasn’t in the safe. I thought I might have a stroke right then and there. Where the hell was it?

Just then, my wife came into the room and said, “What is all the shouting about? Is everything alright?”

“Do you know where the lottery ticket is that I bought the other day? I posted it on the bulletin board when I got home.”

I haven’t seen it. I thought you told me you weren’t going to waste any more money on lottery tickets and horse races and playing cards for money, not to mention going to the Casinos in Atlantic City every weekend. You promised me you wouldn’t gamble anymore.

Yeah, yeah, I promised. But I had this intense feeling that I was going to win the lottery, and I did. I wrote down the numbers on a piece of paper and stuck it on my poster board in my office, and they matched. But the ticket isn’t in my little safe. It’s gone.”

“Are you sure you put it in your little safe? Maybe you just thought about doing it, and you forgot. You do that all the time. I’ll go through your clothes and your coat pockets and see if I can find it. You better not be pulling my leg about winning the million-dollar lottery. I’ll let you know if I find it right away.

Hellen spent the next forty-five minutes checking the clothes in the laundry basket and the clothes in his drawers. In case, he put the clothes he wore that day back in the drawer because sometimes her husband thought the clothes were still “good” to wear another day or two. And the last thing she did was go through all his jackets, sweaters, and even his heavy winter coat pocket. And just when she was about to give up, she looked in his “lucky sweater.”

And voila, she found the ticket in the top front pocket behind a pack of his cigarettes. At first, she was just mad that he had cigarettes because he had promised her that he quit smoking. But then, when she found the lottery ticket. She forgot all about that.

And she ran into her husband Bert’s office and handed him the ticket. “I found it in your lucky sweater pocket behind your cigarettes. He grabbed it and checked the numbers over and over. And then he stood up and started to jump up and down. He kept screaming I won, I won, I won over and over again. The next thing she knew, she was jumping up and down too. Then they started hugging each other and screaming we won! We won and laughed hysterically.

“Bert, how much did you win?”

“Well, Helen, you’re not going to believe this, but we won ten million dollars. Of course, taxes have to be paid on it, but it’s still millions of dollars. Can you believe it?”

“It feels like a dream. What in the world will we do with all that money?”

“Well, the first thing we can do is pay off our mortgage and all our other bills. Then we can get rid of that old clunker of a car and get a new one. And then we can go on the first real vacation of our lives, anywhere we want to go.”

And then they started hugging each other and jumping up and down again. Then Helen said, “we better not tell anyone that we won this money, or everyone we know and don’t know will be calling us and banging on our door asking for money. So, it has to be our secret. And then we go to the bank and tell them the situation and ask what they think we should do, like what kind of investment we put the money in for the short and long term.

“Helen, we have to contact the New Jersey Lottery office, and they will let us know how to claim the winnings and what to do next,” Bert calls the New Jersey Lottery office and is told he has to come in person with the Lottery Ticket to claim the money and he was told what information and proof of identity he had to bring to the office.

When Bert and Helen arrived at the Lottery Office, they were so excited and wound up they could hardly put two coherent words together. They were taken into the private office of one of the managers, and they showed him the lottery ticket and their ID and proof of address, and banking information.

The Lottery official informed them that the Federal Government would take at least 25% and the local tax would take 13%, and probably tax would take more money up to 37%.

Since they were big winners, the Lottery Official said that a new rule passed that they could remain anonymous for ninety days. Before they announced the winners. He suggested they tell as few people as possible or that they would soon be inundated by people asking, begging, and demanding money from them. They suggested changing their phone number, if possible, not telling anyone they knew about their big win.

Helen and Bert left the office in a fog. They didn’t say anything on the way home to one another because they were overwhelmed by the money and all it entailed. Helen was having second thoughts about the benefits of becoming suddenly wealthy. She led a quiet but content life aside from Bert’s gambling. She was afraid that winning all this money would be the end of her life as she knew it. And she didn’t say a word to him on the way home.

It took several weeks before they were notified by their bank that their newfound wealth was deposited. They suggested having their new account come in with them to the bank to talk about where they wanted their money dispersed. And let them know how much, if any, money they wanted to take in cash. He suggested they make modest withdrawals at first. And he also reminded them that in three months’ time, the announcement of their big win would be publically announced. He once again suggested they move from their present address to a more secluded and protected housing development with security available.

Bert and Helen felt conflicted. They had lived at their present address for over thirty years. They knew all their neighbors, and they felt safe there. It would be a hard move to make. But, they both agreed reluctantly that it was necessary. And so, they hired a realtor to take them to look at new homes that had security round-the-clock.

After two weeks of looking, they found a beautiful home about forty minutes away from their former address, and they decided to sell all their old furniture and buy new. The furniture that they had was mostly hand-me-downs from friends and relatives. In fact, they had never had any new furniture up until now.

The day they moved, they said their goodbyes to their neighbors, who were shocked and sad to see them go. Helen and Bert said that they would call them in a couple of weeks after they got settled, and they would have a bar-b-que and invite them all over.

It took time for them to feel comfortable in their new home. Several of their new neighbors came over and welcomed them to the neighborhood. It took a while before Helen and Bert felt at home. Bert had gone out and bought a new car. It was a compact car, not a luxury vehicle. It ran like a top and was energy efficient. It cost more for the auto insurance he had before because it was new. But Bert loved it, and although he missed his old car for a while, he soon got used to it. Helen loved it from day one, especially since it didn’t smell like cigarette smoke.

As time went by, they felt more at ease and comfortable in their new, improved circumstances. They invited their old friends and neighbors over and met their new neighbors. All seemed to be going by without any real difficulty or problems.

But then the announcement was made about who won the Million Dollar Lottery in New Jersey. And they started getting inundated by the media, the public, and people begging for money. They had to change their phone numbers and block all calls from people they didn’t know. And sometimes people knocked at their doors all day and into the night.

They had to hire security to guard their home and themselves when they went out in public. They had to block their new phone numbers. It was unbelievable how many people begged them for money on a daily basis. It became a nightmare. Finally, out of pure preservation, they decided to invest part of the money. Enough to live on for the rest of their lives. And give money to their family members and anyone who was a long-time friend that was in need, and then they donated the rest of the money to an organization that would disburse the money to organizations where it would benefit the most people. They decided they preferred a quiet life populated with their family members and oldest friends.

They realized that a simple life was a good life for them. Bert decided that gambling was going to be a thing of the past and that being married to Helen had been the biggest win of his life and that he would spend the remainder of their lives together and be grateful for the happiness that had always waited there for them to appreciate. And that money did not always bring happiness and contentment to your life.

 

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