A story written by Mother, Marion Schwarz in 1972…Rest In Peace Mom, You will never be forgotten…Stars made fade, but Legends never die…

It was time for the lottery draw that was held the second Thursday in the month. My Mom came in carrying an afghan that she was crocheting, she had three squares ready to be crocheted into the blanket, that had about sixty squares already in it.

‘’Gee Mom, the blanket really looks great. but you are only putting in three squares tonight?’’ ‘’Yes’’ my Mom said, ‘’I’ve never told anyone, but this is my losing blanket. I buy three or four tickets for every lottery and each square represents one dollar, which is what the ticket cost. Every time I lose on a ticket I put one more square in the afghan, that way I’ll know by the time I’m finished how many lost dollars went in to completing it.’’ I looked at her stunned ‘’But what happens when you win?’’ She shook her head ‘’Don’t be ridiculous, who ever hears of an ordinary housewife winning a lot of money. The reason I’m making the afghan is I want to see how much money I’ve wasted, it’s my way of keeping score, that’s the truth. The lottery tickets motivate me to do something good. When I’m done, I’m going to give you this afghan for your bed, that way someone wins.’’

It was a Tuesday Night and Wintario, the Ontario Lottery was on television. It came on just before All In The Family. The balls dropped, the results were announced , and then it was over. In all, Wintario lasted for about two minutes.

My Mother was busy working on her afghan and barely looking at the television. ‘’Mom, I said you’re not looking at your tickets.’’ She smiled at me ‘’I’ll check them in the morning, I already know the results, if we win anything, it will be another free ticket.’’ She then reached into her pocket and pulled out three tickets. ‘’Here, you can watch.’’

I looked at my Dad who was relaxing, ‘’Hey Dad, do you want to watch Mom’s tickets?’’ He shook his head, ‘’I’ll just sit here and wait for All In The Family to start. I can’t believe there’s characters like Archie Bunker on television. I am confident you can get the numbers. You’re eight years old, you can figure everything out.’’ A very pretty woman named Faye Dance came out on the screen to start the Wintario lottery and she then…