WICKED RICH: the Adventures of a Mad Lottery Winner

Book excerpt: On March 16th, 1997, I ended the day a blue-collar worker, living with my husband in a small house in Methuen, Massachusetts. On March 17, I was a multi-millionaire. After winning the largest lottery jackpot in Massachusetts history, I thought all of my problems were over. I believed it was a dream come true. I was wrong. I soon discovered that I had exchanged the hardships of being a working-class poor girl with the trials of being a working-class wealthy girl. At first my greatest concern was in making sure that the money didn't have the power to change me; however, my greatest mistake was in not anticipating how hard it would be to keep that resolution - because in many cases, the money changed the people around me. More than that, I was something of an awkward, sometimes inept millionaire. I never got used to it, and I was certainly never comfortable with it. Twenty years later, I took some time to reflect on the ups and downs, the tears and the joyous times, and the life lessons I took away from the experience. Lesson One: While money may have the potential to change people, it has only the power that we give it.