It was a Thursday morning and for the first time in my life I was going to the PowerBall site to see what the winning numbers were. Cheryl and I had once again visited Victoria, Vancouver. As before we had taken the ferry from Port Angeles. Back in Port Angeles on the return trip I had, on a whim and being informed the prize was approaching 600 million, I purchased two PowerBall lottery tickets and put in my numbers. On the first one I decided to use my and Cheryl’s birth dates (3,26,8,10,47 and 39 red ball). On the second I used the birth dates of two grandchildren (3,25,93,8,4 and 11 red ball).
When I found the site I clicked on "Powerball Numbers." The first thing to hit my eyes was the red ball. It was 39. I quickly shut my eyes and turned away from the monitor. "One in ten million or perhaps one in a hundred million has to be the odds that the other five number will be there," I said, out loud, to myself as I was the only one in the study. These are the odds the clerk had given me when he told me the prize was approaching 600 million dollars.
Slowly I began to look at the monitor again. I tried to see only one number at at time, much as one does when looking at a poker hand by uncovering one card at a time. This proved impossible since I saw two number, 10 and 47, before I could close my eyes again. Six hundred million dollars, I was just wondering if my heart could stand it if the other three numbers were there. I considered waking Cheryl and letting her tell me what the other three numbers were. No, she had said I was crazy and had just wasted four dollars. If I had won and had another heart attack she could enjoy the money with someone else, I thought.
This time I opened my eyes before turning slowly back to the monitor. I saw the 10 and then the 47. Then the third number came into view, 26. My heart skipped a beat. "Damnit, I need to control this," I again said aloud to myself. Then a 3 came into view. To my surprise this time my heartbeat slowed instead of racing. I had never won anything in my life that mounted to more than a token prize.
For some reason my mind went back to my childhood. It was not long after the end of World War II and we were living in a mill house in Clayton, SC. Friends of my parents owned a grocery store and they were giving away a bicycle for Christmas. Boy, did I ever want that bicycle and I knew my parents had put my name in the drawing. Christmas Eve, after my sister and I had gone to bed, there was a knock at the front door. I was just sure that it was Mr. Squire delivering the bicycle. Some time later, I thought it was all night, I finally fell to sleep. The next morning when there was no bicycle in the front room with the Christmas tree, I felt as though there was never to be any luck in my life.
Now, just a few months after turning seventy-four my winning something remained much the same. Why the hell should I be getting excited, the fifth number was not going to be 8. With a quick snap of my head, I viewed all six numbers: 10-47-26-3-8 and the red ball remained a 39. I don’t remember exactly what I did next, but I’m sure there were a few moments of being in another realm.
Once back to reality, I realized that Cheryl was still in bed. I printed out the page and went into the bedroom and woke her. "Aren’t you a little late for April’s Fools?" she ask. When I finally convinced her this was not a joke, she became as excited as I was. Yes, I was excited but I was calm, calm to the point that it surprised me.
What to do? That would have been what most people would think the winner of the PowerBall would be thinking. Not me. I knew exactly what we were going to do first.
The PowerBall site indicated that the prize was 613 million dollars. The cash value was $337, 150, 000.00. The site did not state how many individual tickets had those numbers. For all we knew, we could be the sole winner.
"What do we do now?" Cheryl ask once the excitement had subsided some. I laughed at her. On the way home after I had purchased the tickets, I had tried to play a game with her as what we would do if we happened to win. She had rebuffed those attempts as ridiculous, since the odds were stacked so great against us. Now she was ready to turn her imagination loose. "Let’s call the kids and share this news."
"No, no, no, no. Let’s wait until nine o’clock and call Ben Gregory and get an appointment as soon as possible." Though Cheryl had refused to play the game with me, I had allowed my imagination wonder on the trip home. I knew we needed a lawyer before doing anything.
Ben Gregory had been our lawyer ten years earlier when we declared bankruptcy. I had suffered my second heart attack which forced us to close the retail store. Now if this was actually our prize, I wanted to reimburse all those that had lost money because of us. Also, I wanted to be protected from all those who would want to share our good fortune.
After her second cup of coffee Cheryl was all into the game she had wanted nothing to do with on the trip home. Now it was no longer be a game, but something we have to decide how we’re going to handle. She did agree that we should not share this great news with anyone before we had hired an attorney.
Cheryl looked over her cup and acknowledged I had given this possibility much more thought than she and wanted to know what was in my mind.
I told Cheryl the first thing I thought we should do is work form the cash value. Research showed that the federal taxes would be forty percent. The federal tax on $337, 150, 000.00 would be $134, 860, 000.00. PowerBall would keep twenty-five percent up front and we would be responsible for the remaining fifteen percent. If my figures were correct, Powerball would give the IRS $84, 288,000.00. That meant we needed to set aside $50, 572,000.00 for taxes. That left $202, 290, 000.00 in our pocket.
Now what does a seventy-four year old man and his sixty-six year old wife do with over 202 million dollars? Cheryl said the first thing she would do is quit her job. "What would be your reason?" I ask.
"Two weeks of vacation has spoiled me and shown me it’s time to kick back and do no more than what I want to."
"How much notice would you give them?"
"Let’s make sure we have the money before I make that decision."
I told Cheryl that my daydreaming had been to create a trust fund for the two of us in the amount of 100 million dollars. Then I would set up trust funds of each child in the amount of twenty million. She wanted to know who would have control of these trust funds. I told her it would be she and I as long as one of us was still living. After both of us was gone each child would become Trustee of their individual fund. As to the one for she and I, that was something that the two of us needed to decide together.
Cheryl wanted to know how much I thought the children’s fund would pay the each year. I had been thinking of seventy-five thousand a year. Any amount the trust earned over that would just increase the value of the trust. If any of the children wanted more they would have to contact us, the Trustees, for that. Cheryl thought they should receive what the principle of the fund had earned. I told her to think about it, twenty million, at just four percent would earn 800 thousand. After taxes, they would have at least 350 to 400 thousand. That would just make life to easy for them. We decided to wait until we had the money to make this decision.
Then she ask about the grandchildren. My response to that was: "We’ve been down that road. The grandchildren will need to turn to their parents for any inheritance. That doesn’t mean that we can’t help any grandchild on an individual bases."
As we set down at the table for breakfast, we began to discuss the other twenty-two million. I told her I wanted to make good to everyone we owed money to when we filed bankruptcy; then settle what we owed on the house and the second mortgage. After that we could afford to live anywhere we desired. Heck, we could even have a winter and summer home for that matter.
Then I told her that once all the dust had settled I wanted to visit Europe. Especially the places I had been to in 1959 when I was in the Navy. She then reminded me that we had always said we would like to buy a RV and travel to all the places we wanted to visit here in the US. "Sure, just as soon as we get back from Europe.
By the time we had finished breakfast and cleaned the kitchen it was nine o’clock. I called Ben Gregory’s office and ask for an appointment as soon a possible. The secretary wanted to know the reason. I told her we wished to retain Ben to represent us again concerning the bankruptcy he had handled ten years ago. She told us that the bankruptcy was so far back that we would need another retainer of a thousand dollars. I informed her that was fine and we got lucky again, he had an opening at two thirty that afternoon.
While we agonized through the next five hour we discussed what the 100 million dollar trust fund would be used since we would be left with at least 20 million. I told her I wanted it to be an education fund. "This is found money. If it never goes beyond the two of us, nothing has been lost. How about we create a family trust,20 million, just for members of family’s education. This fund could not be used for anything but the education of family members. The other eighty million would establish a foundation, the Zephyr Education Foundation, for some of the less fortunate to be able to attend colleges or universities they otherwise could not afford. This was another decision we chose to put off until we had the money.
"So it appears you have come into some money and want to make restitution to those involved in your bankruptcy," Ben said as he shook my hand. I acknowledged that was the case if, indeed, we had come into some money.
"Wow!" was his response when I handed him everything we had and told him the value of the prize was 613 million. After looking at what we had, he said we should contact PowerBall and find out for sure. With that he picked up the phone and dialed the number. Twenty minutes passed with him saying very little, just making notes. Then he told the person on the other end of the line that he would get back to them shortly. Then he informed us that we had won and it appeared we were the sole winner.
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