Lotto tragedy and why the real jackpot is family love
Every week throughout her life, my mum put a fiver on the Lotto. When we scoffed that she’d won only £50 in all those years, she would smile and say that when her millions did roll in, her children ‘would not find her ungenerous’.
To which we replied in chorus: ‘No, Mum, we just won’t find you!’
And yet still we all played the game of fantasising how a windfall like that would change our lives.
Well, yesterday, I was reminded to be careful what I wish for when I read of Margaret Loughrey, who was on £58-a-week in benefits when she scooped £27 million eight years ago.
Despite giving away the vast majority of her fortune to family, friends, charities and good causes, Margaret, who had suffered mental health problems, was found dead this week aged just 56.
Police said that there were no suspicious circumstances.
Clearly, not even money like that ended her troubles: in fact, there’s every sign it made them worse. Before her death, this poor woman sighed: ‘Money has brought me nothing but grief. It destroyed my life.’
Margaret is far from alone in seeing her life destroyed by her dough.
Postman Adrian Bayford won a whopping £148million on euroMillions back in 2012. His son Cameron, 13, this week came out of an induced coma after his quad bike — a gift from Dad — crashed on the family’s sprawling Suffolk estate last month. A friend said Adrian ‘feels consumed with guilt’.
The Bible asks us: ‘What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’
It’s not just Lottery winners. Time and time again, we see that money doesn’t buy you happiness.
When Mum and I ruminated about what we would do with her imaginary fortune, in the end she always wound up by saying she’d already won life’s jackpot.
A loving husband, three kids, grandchildren, family, friends, faith and fellowship: treasures money can’t buy.
We, her children, all came to stand on our own two feet as she and Dad had taught us to, making our own way in the world.
No amount of money, she knew, can give you that most precious gift: a purpose in life.