<strong>By LEE SCOTT</strong>

A friend of mine received a lottery ticket in a birthday card. Her birthday is in June and the lottery ticket was a “Christmas” lottery ticket.

It was still good, but, sadly, it did not reap any kind of reward.

As we were discussing the ticket, which she thought had been a re-gift because her friend had been in the hospital in December and probably had not bought it herself, I started to wonder what would have happened if she scratched off the numbers and found that she was the missing $1,000,000 winner.

When I asked my spouse, he said he would call his friend and split it with him.

I said I would give my friend a 10 percent commission. At this point, I felt exceedingly small and selfish. He was $400,000 ahead of me.

Later, as a group of friends gathered at the pool, socially distanced of course, I posed the question:

“What would you have done in the event the gifted lottery ticket was a big winner?”

I was curious as to what other people might say considering my spouse’s generosity.

A good friend who has some close knowledge with gambling casinos said she would give a $500.00 tip. Evidently, that is what you do at the casinos when you win enough that the employee has to bring the funds to you because the machine does not have that much money. Right away I felt better because her $500 was nothing compared to my $10,000 commission.

A very practical woman with an uncanny sense of humor said, “$2. That is the cost of the ticket.”

Another person said that maybe the best thing would be to say, “Thank you” and not mention if you won or not. After all, how does the person know unless they see on Facebook that you just purchased a beautiful new boat.

One woman laughed and said, “Don’t ever talk to her again. After all, she re-gifted something; not much of a friend.”

Then the question came up. “If you were going to give any money to the gift giver, do you have to go back to the original gift giver? After all, she was the one who spent the $2. The second giver only bought a birthday card and a stamp.”

Needless to say, it turned into a lively discussion as to who was generous, who was selfish, and, by the way, what would you do with the $1,000,000?

In the end, we all agreed that the best thing to do was to send the gift giver a new lottery ticket for her birthday. Who knows, she might be a big winner and never talk to you again.

Let’s face it, a $10,000,000 winner might want to remain anonymous.

Lee Scott, a writer and recent retiree, shares her everyday observations about life after career. A former commercial banker responsible for helping her clients to reach their business objectives, Scott now translates those analytical skills to her writings. She lives on St. Helena Island and enjoys boating, traveling and reading.