Ed and Maxine, around 2006
02-04-23-38-46 and the Mega Ball 23 — these were last night’s winning numbers in the Mega Millions lottery. People across the country (and world) spent nearly $1.5 billion in lottery tickets hoping their ticket would be the one. The final payout turned out to be a whopping and unfathomable $640 million dollars. Owners of three winning tickets beat the seemingly impossible odds and are now “rich” beyond comprehension.
Ed: “I’ve never been rich in my life. Any money I’ve had, I’ve given a lot of it away.”
Sheryl: “How can you say you’re not rich? Others are envious. You have what many will never have in their lifetime.”
Ed: “Maxine and I still sleep in the same four-poster bed we bought when we first got married.”
Sheryl: “And that’s part of why your story is so incredible.”
Ed was an extremely hard-working man. In fact, he become a man far earlier than his age told. His dad was a severe alcoholic. For periods of time, he would disappear. As a boy, Ed worked different jobs to help provide food and living provisions for his mother and siblings. There was no money for him to go to college. But, in the early 1940’s, when Ed was in his late teens, something happened that suddenly made him very, very rich…for the rest of his life.
One evening Ed went to a friend’s party. Some of the teens there decided they wanted to go to a dance taking place at the local YMCA. A group piled into the back seat of one of the teen’s car. Plop! Maxine ended up on Ed’s lap. And they ended up getting married on July 2, 1949. They were each other’s everything. For 60-plus years, until his passing just over a year ago, Ed and Maxine were rich beyond anything money could touch.
Sure it would be nice to have an extra million bucks or two floating around. But, what really, really counts in life is our relationships. Our relationships with our family members and friends. Our relationships with anyone whose life we can make a difference for the better. Look around. I’ll bet you’re already very, very “rich.”
Note: If you’d like to meet Ed and Maxine, watch the brief video; they’re the second couple interviewed (in the old Mercury Cougar).
Get Along Better provides you relationship “tips” with a twist of humor. Want more? 4,000+ years’ worth of advice from“real-life experts” are documented in Everlasting Matrimony: Pearls Of Wisdom From Couples Married 50 Years Or More, a coffee-table book by Sheryl Kurland. Makes an excellent gift for weddings, anniversaries, engagements…or just because!
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