I stood up straight. James held the door. The formal transfer of the winning ticket claim to my name was processed within 10 business days of the panel’s ruling. James handled the paperwork with the same unhurried precision he had brought to Roland’s estate 15 years earlier. Nothing was missed. Nothing was rushed.
On the 22nd of April, I walked into the Ohio Lottery Commission’s claims office on High Street with James beside me and the original ticket in a plastic document sleeve. I signed the claim form with my full name, Margaret Anne Ellis. The prize was $91,400,000 before taxes. After federal and state taxes, the net amount deposited into my newly established account was approximately $43 million.
James had arranged for a financial adviser named Catherine Park. Careful, thorough, and possessed of the useful quality of explaining everything twice without making you feel you had needed her to. We sat for 3 hours on our first meeting. I told her about Roland and the porch and the hydrangeas and about what I believed money was actually for.