BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted September 29, 2004)
I heard someone say, "Money can't buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it."
Maybe, but I believe there are far less expensive ways to find happiness.
Melvin Rhodes found a way.
He did it by becoming a part time biscuit-maker at McDonald's.
Melvin had been successful in the restaurant business for years. He owned restaurants in North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee.
After his wife died, he became interested in funeral homes and, with some partners, bought a funeral home in Clinton, Tennessee, and ran it for 12 years.
Then, when he was about 70 years old, he wanted to do some traveling, so he decided to sell the businesses, and get a part time job.
That's when Melvin went back to his first love, the restaurant business. He became a biscuit-maker at McDonald's there in Clinton. He did that for 5 years, making biscuits part time, and traveling in his free time. Happy as a lark.
Then, the unexpected happened.
At 74 years old, Melvin hit the lottery. $80 million!
He had purchased a powerball ticket in Kentucky. He took the cash option.... a bit more than $42 million.
Melvin became a big contributor to the Ronald McDonald House .... he donated $100,000 to the University of Tennessee .... he helped start a home for battered women in East Tennessee, and gave to many others.
His son said Melvin had always given people the shirt off his back, now he could just do it on a bigger scale.
Melvin died this past weekend in Maryville at 78, four years after winning the lottery.
It was the end of the line for this World War II veteran, who had found happiness 5 years before winning the lottery, by simply making biscuits at McDonald's.
When this story came across the wires yesterday, I heard some of the young people joking about how it's always "old people" who win the big jackpots, and how young people would have more time to enjoy the money.
They're not quite old enough yet to understand what "the big one" really is.
My wife walked outdoors last night and saw that big full Autumn moon. She said it was magical.
That's a jackpot.
And to wake up every morning with good health, and people you care about, and who care about you..... that's the big one!
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