The Aunt Adele and the Connecticut Lottery Story

1966

A true story

Written 1/2011* 905 Words

By Howard Yasgar

My mother’s sister Adele was a hard-working Practical Nurse.

Her husband was Jim Nelson a merchant seaman and machinist.

In 1941 they had a son Allen who was two years younger than I was.

In 1957, two weeks before Allen’s wedding, his father, who was an Alcoholic, fell down a flight of stairs and died, and my aunt Adele now became a widow.

By 1962, my Aunt Adele and Allen were living in an apartment on York Street, in New Haven, Connecticut. Adele was still working every day as a practical nurse.

We heard through the family grapevine that my Aunt Adele had taken up living with a fellow named Carol, who was an alcoholic.

The rumor within the family was that Carol was somewhat bedridden, and his every need was attended to by my Aunt Adele.

We then heard that Adele had also started drinking right along with Carol, and that’s when my mother became concerned for her.

Aunt Adele would call my mother several times a week from Connecticut and Adele would have a conversation with her.

If I happened to be at home when Aunt Adele called, my mother would hold the telephone receiver away from her ear and say to me, “Your aunt Adel is celebrating”. That was my mom’s code when Adele was drunk.

The rumor was that as soon as my Aunt Adele went to work, her bedridden boyfriend Carol

would hop out of bed, and go to the local tavern, and he would spend the day drinking with his buddies.

When it got close to the time Adele would be returning from work, Carol would be back home in bed and ready for Adele to cook him supper.

Everyone in the family felt bad for Adele, they all felt that her abusive husband Jimmy had died and now Adele had now gotten herself into another bad relationship.

It was at that time that the state of Connecticut started its own lottery.

And from what I was told, the lottery tickets cost .50 cents each.

So, every week the winning ticket holders would receive $5000.00 and they all went to Hartford

Connecticut to draw a winning ticket for the one-Million-dollar jackpot.

Every week, Adele bought two lottery tickets for .50 cents each.

She purchased one ticket for Carol, and one for herself, putting both tickets in her purse.

As luck would have it, one of Adel's ticket numbers was drawn, awarding her $5000.00 in cash, which entitled her to go to Hartford Connecticut for the million-dollar jackpot drawing.

Adele went to Hartford, and she became the lucky person to draw the million-dollar winning lottery number.

What could be nicer, everyone was so happy, that this hard-working woman, who never had an easy life, was now a millionaire.

Adele was to get $700.00 per week tax free, for 20 years.

Adele then called both her sisters to tell them the good news.

My Aunt, who probably never earned more than $100.00 a week, could now retire.

So, the first thing she did was to buy for herself and Carol a small home in Hamden Connecticut

Everyone in the family was so happy for Adele. Everyone felt no one was more deserving than her to win the Lottery.

Adele’s boyfriend Carol could now order their liquor over the phone and have it delivered to the house.

It was then that Adele's bedridden boyfriend Carol asked her the million-dollar question.

He said, “Whose lottery ticket actually won”? Was it the ticket Adele bought for Carol, or the one she bought for herself?

Adele didn’t know what the difference was as she had paid for the tickets herself and she was sharing everything with Carol anyway.

But Carol wasn’t satisfied, and my aunt Adele became stricken with guilt, and she couldn’t sleep nights thinking about it.

Adele, who was still living in Connecticut, started calling my mother in Miami every day.

She called to discuss the problem she had with Carol. So now Adele and my mother would talk long distance for hours.

Soon the problem became worse, Adele was now taking a limo to New York Airport and she started flying to Miami just to sit for a couple of hours with my mother and talk. Then Adele would catch the next flight back to Connecticut.

It became obvious to everyone that her boyfriend Carol was now making Adele sick.

My mother was extremely concerned, that possibly, my aunt Adele was going to go crazy or perhaps commit suicide.

Then, an urgent call came from Adele, her alcoholic boyfriend Carol, had up and died.

That meant Adele was now free to move to Miami and live with her sisters, which she did.

So, by 1965, all three of the sisters were now all living together on Miami Beach.

Eventually Adele met a retired electrician from New York named Al, and she moved in with him.

Adele and Al lived happily together in Miami Beach for many years.

My wife Katherine and I would visit them whenever Adele's son Allen, and his wife Diana were in Miami.

Around 2005, Adele's health became an issue, so her son Alan put her into an assisted living facility in Colorado, where her health eventually returned.

Allen reported that Adele had now taken up bike riding and she joined in with all the activities at the facility.

My Aunt eventually passed away from Pancreatic Cancer in 2005.