My grandmother's best friend while growing up and through college is the lady in Virgina (West VA?) that won the hundreds of millions some years back; I forget the actual amount. Since my grandmother had not spoken to her in many years, she did not want to contact her to congratulate her because of the way it would look (sad conundrum). My grandparents also have very strong feelings about the morality of the lottery. The winner contacted my grandmother, though, through a letter. She is widowed and really didn't quite know what to do with the money. She only played the lottery as a hobby, not so much a hope to strike it big.
Anyway, she won more money than she knew what to do with as a widowed retiree. She has given a lot of money to charity and friends and family. She sends my grandparents a $1,000 check each month which my grandparents have not spent a dime of. The objected but she has to get rid of the money or it just gets lost to taxes and time as she has nobody to leave it to. That kind of money has a way of just compounding on itself and spending it does not necessarily deplete it. She has built a wing on an educational hospital among other charities of which I am not really informed.
The only material thing she bought herself was a Cadillac. Still living in the same modest home. Still living exactly as she did before except for one unfortunate side effect. She now has an addiction to gambling. She will hop on a jet to Vegas, spend a few hours and couple hundred thousand at the casinos and fly back. I guess it's not so bad. For the most part, though, she claims it has not significantly changed her life.
I need to ask my grandparents how she's doing.