A Million$$ Jackpot Lottery Winner Story

A couple of anonymous posts on the Project 1707 site remarked that our family doesn't deserve help from the church because we are millionaire lottery winners who own two houses. Fair enough. People are free to support any deserving cause they wish to, and we didn't make the cut on these persons' lists. But I think it is important to clarify the issues brought up in these posts. Because much of this family history is painful for me - there were arguments and bitterness, disagreements and regrets - I will not go into the personal details concerning our decisions about this windfall. I understand that people are very curious about this event in our family, but it is still our family's personal business, and some things are simply off limits to others.

A day or so after the fire, Rev. Len offered us help in the form of work crews, we thanked him, but declined the offer. We were lucky, we said, and there are so many other people who are not so fortunate. We had a place to live, no one was hurt, and we felt we would be okay. Occasionally when I would see Rev. Len around town, he would tell me the offer was still open, if I ever needed help, just let him know. My friend Monique, also a member of the Methodist Church, mentioned several times that the church was willing to help.
And still we declined. We know we are fortunate.

Fast forward a year and a half: Pat has completely gutted the kitchen - removing tons of burned cabinets, appliances, plaster, chunks of debris. He has put up new walls, replaced windows and is working on making new cabinets out of recycled and cast off lumber. I've hauled trash, cleaned and painted walls. The house is starting to shape up. But we are tired. And our money is gone. We live paycheck to paycheck and put our heating bills (for two large old drafty houses) on credit cards just to get by. When the church stepped forward and offered to help again, we were relieved and grateful and we accepted the help. All we expected was some help scrubbing walls, and maybe removing walls in the rooms where the plaster was already falling off. But this work crew came up with a more ambitious plan - take down all the cruddy walls, replace the old inadequate insulation, update the wiring, and put new walls up. We said, oh, are you sure? And they said, yeah, they were sure, so we accepted, but we were really sort of embarrassed by this level of help - a psychologist could maybe explain why. When we were told they would ask the church congregation for donations to cover the costs of wall board and insulation I felt really embarrassed and shy about it, but hopeful that we could soon return to our house. We would put the other house up for sale and hope (in this market) we could sell it and be able to pay off our debts and give some money back to the Methodist Church so they could help someone else.

And then we saw the comments on the project blog. So.



Here's the scoop on our million $$ jackpot lottery win:

In 1995 my husband bought a lottery ticket that was a winner: we received an annuity for a million dollars to be paid out over a 20 year period. We would receive a weekly payment of about $660 after taxes were taken out. At this time we were earning just enough to make ends meet and I was pregnant with the youngest of our five children. This extra amount of money allowed our standard of living to rise to an upper middle class level. It also gave us a measure of freedom - to make choices about jobs and college and vacations. After about five years a decision (which caused disagreement) was made to cash in the annuity. Over the years, we have both made changes in our work situations which made our income fluctuate. Some years we had to buy our own health insurance because both of us were working part time and taking turns staying home with the baby. Thirteen years after my husband bought that ticket, what we have left from that win is whatever we can sell our second house for. And remember: we never had a million dollars cash in one lump sum to spend or save however we wanted.

Did we make mistakes? Yes.
Did we make some ignorant decisions? Yes.
Were we foolish? Sometimes.
Should we have invested more wisely? Yes.
Should we have saved more, planned better, been wiser, shrewder, more informed? Yes.
Were we extravagant? Perhaps, in some ways
Do all people make mistakes about some things in their lives? Yes.
Do many American families make mistakes when it comes to money? According to recent events,
even CEOs of huge banks make mistakes when it comes to money
Are we rich? No.
Were we ever rich? Not by American standards.
Would we do things differently if we had the chance? You betcha.

Where did the money go? Here is a list, in no particular order, of how we spent the lottery money over the past 13 years:

College tuition for our daughter.
A new car 1996 Dodge caravan (which we still own)
Paid off our credit car debt
2 road trips to East Texas (a place I would never visit if I didn't have family there) to visit my
mother
1 airplane trip to Jacksonville, Florida to visit my father after his wife died (1 air fare)
1 airplane trip to San Diego so my husband could visit his brother and show two of our kids
where their parents grew up (3 air fares)
1 road trip to Arizona to attend my brother's wedding
2 road trips to Mall of America: first with my son as a birthday gift for him, bought 2 board games, deluxe Scrabble and wooden framed Chinese checkers set; second trip was a fun excursion for me and my other children, we each bought a stuffed animal at FAO Schwartz and did the rides at Camp Snoopy.
Remodeled our kitchen - my husband did all the work, we bought mid-price cabinets from
Menard's, and cabinet tops from Penrose Lumber
Paved our driveway
Tore down the 100 year old collapsing barn/garage and built a new garage. My husband
bought a kit (from Penrose Lumber) and he and our neighbor Dave, built the garage
Bought trees for our backyard
Bought a guitar ($300) for my daughter
Bought 2 mattress sets
Bought a couch and a chair
Replaced ceiling in the living room
Bought a used truck ($2,000)
Bought a used compact car for my daughter ($1,000)
Bought new refrigerator
Paid hospital and doctor bills when youngest child was born
Gave cash gift to friend in financial distress
Gave cash gift and monthly financial help to my sister during financial distress
Bought gifts for elderly in nursing homes and gifts for needy children at Christmas
Sponsored several children overseas through Plan USA/Childreach
Gave to church special projects and needs and funds, plus regular pledge
Gave to other favorite charities and causes: NPR, wildlife organizations, etc.
Living expenses for family with growing children: food, clothes, shoes, winter wear, school
supplies, school registration, other assorted school related expenses, gas and electric bills,
water bills, phone bills, Christmases and birthdays, mortgage, insurance, repair and
maintenance on house and automobiles...etc.
In summertime - we bought one of those big backyard pools for all of us to play in
Church camp - for 2 kids and family camp for me and kids 2 or 3 summers in a row
Grinnell Summer Arts camp
Tax accountants - winning the lottery made yearly income tax statements a nightmare


Finally - we bought the second house. Built in 1910 and divided into three apartments, this was an investment, and would have supplied a modest addition to our income had we charged as much rent as we should have. But we felt bad about charging more rent that we could have afforded ourselves! Since we bought this house we have only lost money on it. Three apartments make it a commercial property with a hefty commercial property tax to go with it.

Currently we are paying property taxes on both our houses, gas and electric on both houses (we keep the heat on about 45 degrees at the 7th Ave. house so the water pipes don't burst and so we can work comfortably when we are there), water bills for both houses. So yeah, we own two houses, but we aren't exactly living like John and Cindy McCain. We can't live in the fire damaged house, the other house contains our cash assets, but we can't get those assets until we sell the house, and we can't sell the house until the other house is in livable condition...unless we take out a loan on the house, and at this point more debt is not in our best interest.

Maybe you would have been smarter if you had won the lottery. People like us - who don't agree on how to handle money and who handle it poorly, we don't deserve to win in the eyes of many people. Most people like to imagine how they would spend the money if they won the lottery - none of us imagines that he will simply blow it, or let it be frittered away on the stuff of life, or that he will have arguments with his spouse about how to use it, spend it, save it, invest it or waste it. We think all it will bring is happiness and joy and that it will simplify the difficult parts of our lives and and enrich the happy parts of our lives. We all have noble intentions and grand plans. I wish I'd spent it on a trip to Tahiti. I might not have come back.

We are profoundly grateful for all the help we have received so far. The people on the work crew have been extremely generous with their time, labor and moral support. Even if they never do another thing at our house, their cheerful presence has been a tremendous gift to us - it has lightened our loads and lifted our spirits and restored our hope. Money or no money, we appreciate all the Grinnell United Methodist Church has done for us and will always hold the congregation in high esteem.

Thank you very, very much.