No caption needed!
As we get older, we realise that life is a lottery, despite everything we´re taught to the contrary. The belief in hard work, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and keeping on trying because you WILL succeed is only applicable in limited measure given all the kinds of struggle people face.
Because shit happens. Shit like severe disability.
Not a week ago, as I was coming out of the bank, I bumped into a couple from around the barrio. They said hello politely, but perhaps because their struggles were all too apparent, they didn´t engage in conversation.
The woman, always pretty but now very thin, used to work in a supermarket, but due to what is clearly a degenerative illness, had to give it up. She is also a a cancer survivor.
The couple have two daughters around the same age as mine, now 13. One of 
the girls was born with a severe muscular disability but the couple fought to have her educated in a normal school and get her proper medical care and she is doing well.
I stood on the corner after they left and chastised myself for going on about my husband not getting his Christmas pay. I told myself to be grateful that our little family is free of the struggles this couple are facing every day.
I wished to God something could be done for them. And something has.
THEY´VE WON THE LOTTERY!!!
I´d been muttering on again about our Scrooge Christmas, especially when I heard that the El Gordo lottery had struck five minutes down the road from us.
Hell, for once Alcalá is “SpainStruck” and we get nada, I thought, forgetting that other lottery, the one that struck our trains in 2004, leaving dozens of alcalaínos maimed or dead.
That was a lottery our safe and sound family won.
When I heard about the lottery win, I did think of this struggling family, but I cynically decided that no, despite being so deserving, luck probably wouldn´t be on their side.
I was wrong! You can see them in this video, sitting in the car. How wonderful to see this careworn man, who hasn´t been paid his wages in five months, smile and look his age again. His daughter tells how they´ve struggled for a few years and that her parents deserve the win.
Well, I´m crying like a madalena! It won´t make a believer in God or destiny or karma out of me – though it might these neighbours – but I´m thrilled that my one, little prayer was answered. While the health issues faced by this family won´t go away, a fat bank balance will make life much, much easier for them.
So despite these times of “austerity” (legal robbery) this turn of events is making this Christmas a very happy one for me and I hope you all have a very Happy Christmas and a Guid New Year!
About Mo
Well, if the caption at the head of the post is anything to go by, this lucky person would be entitled to €400,000. He’s holding a “décimo” (the tenth part of a number), for which he has paid €20. The “Gordo” prize this year was €20,000 to €1. It is very common for people to be looking up a bunch of numbers after the draw because they have stakes in them (from “participaciones” sold for profit or not to tickets that are bought jointly by families, friends, co-workers, associations, clubs, businesses and so on). The Spanish National Lottery at Christmas will rarely make you so rich that you can quit working altogether: for the top €4M prize, you need to spend €200 on a full number, something which few people do. What makes it such an event is that practically everybody – even unwittingly – has a stake in the draw through their social networks, and the number of different prizes available makes it relatively possible to get lucky: about one in six tickets will be “premiado”, even if it is just the “reintegro”, or your original money back.
Like any other gambling industry, however, the Spanish National Lottery is quite profitable: the State made about €30M from this Christmas special draw.
Well, hubby, when did you write this particular disquisition? When I was wrapping up your Kissmas pressie? Anyway, thank you for explaining, even if after about two lines my eyes started to glaze over. Hope you can find out how much this family won, what with you aye wandering the streets and sitting in bars etc. I hope it was at least the €400,000 – pay off their mortgage or move, get care for the wife, good holiday or ten, and a fab Christmas for those wee girls who have had to grow up very quickly. And next time, buy the lottery ticket in the same place they did!
Nice one Mo. Indeed other people’s problems make one’s own seem insignificant.The best thing about the lottery is that it does genuinely help a few lucky of people.Saw a couple on TV last night who were going to be thrown out of their house but now could pay the mortgage off.
I´m glad to be the bearer of good news for once and it is fantastic to hear of people in such dire straits that finally see the light. Around the barrio (though it does seem to be concentrated quite a way down and none of our neighbours seem to have won anything, proably ´cos our lottery office is in my street, not further down) the wealth has been spread out helping a lot of families going through a rough time. So it´s good news, even if I wish I´d bought a ticket at the winning office (of course I never buy a ticket anyway …). And Paddy you have a wonderful reason for celebrating this Christmas so have a really happy one!
I feel happy and grateful not to win when people like this can enjoy a slightly more comfortable christmas. Often it seems that probability is playing a sick joke on the public when undeserving life-serving criminals can win the lottery, but you rarely hear of cases such as this. I hope that the media dom’t rip them apart (although that usually seems to me to be a British thing) and that they can enjoy their good fortune.
I feel the same way – once I saw these folk on the video I stopped caring about winning anything ourselves. They´re kind and decent, uncomplaining people, who have had a titanic struggle and now, while the health problems aren´t going to go away, Manuel can hopefully pay for care for his wife if needed and all those other things that will take the weight off his shoulders. I do hope it´s a really big win but if it´s “just ” a couple of hundred thousand, that will still make a huge differnce to their lives as well as their hopes for the future. I´m thrilled those two little girls will have a really fantastic Christmas this year and maybe every year from now on.
Great article Mo – I agree with you that sometimes we forget how trivial our problems are compared to others. I love the fact that so many deserving people get to share in the lottery this year.
Me too Yolanda. We´ve been lucky so far, hubby has a job, cross fingers it stays that way. Good to see a bit of relief going around for folk that have had it very tough.
What a nice story! It’s usually the comfortably off who win, because they buy more lottery tickets. I remember my brother-in-law, a few years back, telling everyone that he’d won 250€. What he didn’t mention to most people is that he’d spent 300€ on tickets.
I know! I´m so happy for them, for all the people who are unemployed and are now able to breathe more easily. A wee pellizco would´ve been nice but we bought out ticket (one) in the lottery place in our street. And I WILL find out how much they won … just give me time!