In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “You’re a Winner!.”
Karl Marx once said (allegedly)…”Religion is the opium of 
the masses”…I think in modern times the ‘religion’ could well be replaced with…’The Lottery”… The Lottery is now the opium of the masses. Do you ‘do’ the lottery ?? I certainly do, in fact I do two lotteries…the UK National Lottery and the European Lottery, or Euro lottery The chance to be a multi millionaire is very real, though the odds are reallystacked against you…millions and more to one. Yet people, me included, spent an awful lot of money trying for the ‘Big One’ and a chance to be free of worries. There are those who say, “A lot of money will only bring you sorrow” ….. Yeah!! right !! … just give me the chance, let me win an obscene amount of money, and I will show the world how a lot of money will NOT bring me sorrow !!
OK…so I am a winner (must be an anonymous winner ) and I have won £1 billion ( the Daily Prompt says $, but I live in the UK so it’s going to be £ sterling …. Is that a sly way of getting even more money out of the system ??? maybe….I live in private rented accommodation, in not the most salubrious of neighbourhoods in the ‘Steel City’, the place of my Birth. Would I leave my beloved ‘Steel City’? .. I’d move so fast it would make my nose bleed !!! but NOT out of Yorkshire…I would stay in Yorkshire … ‘God’s own Country’… as my ba
se but have other properties, certainly one in the Yorkshire Dales (as above) and maybe one in Cornwall on the coast. Well….I have won a billion pounds after all !!!
I think first of all after getting over the shock, I’d revel in the feeling of financial security for me and my family, I would delight in the lifting of the pressure of scraping to pay the utility bills and council tax etc… FAMILY would figure next. I would gift a large sum to my son and the same to My daughter and her family, my three grand daughters would get a trust fund to be accessed at age 21 (call me old fashioned, but 18 doesn’t cut it with me !!!) Their education taken care of as an extra with an annual bursery so they could do it in comfort. (am I soft or what ??) My sister wouldn’t have to worry again either..she would be well taken care of…I love her to bits !!
Next I would commission a firm of architects to build homes for my family (mine would have a granny wing for mother ), whilst we all went on the holiday of a lifetime…West Indies for me (in the cricket season!!)..After that I would give careful consideration to helping out a few friends/work colleagues who have meant a lot to me over the years.
Even with all the gifts and trust funds set up I would have more money than
I could spend in my life time, and I would turn my thoughts to setting up a stud farm for ‘Shire Horses’. I have always loved the massive Shire horses and find it so sad that the breeds are dying out…that would be my major selfish project…no doubt there would be others, but time is precious so can I have my win now please ?……
steelcityman 
Oh my — I grew up a horse lover and was always fascinated by the Shire! And the Yorkshire Dales…spent way too much time reading James Herriott stories as a child and imagining one day going there. Maybe years and years from now! Thanks so much for posting this — I think it’s good to dream a little now and then!
Thanks for your comment Charlotte … Without dreams life is a dark place indeed.
If you win and put down roots in Cornwall, give me a shout. I’ll buy you a cream tea to celebrate.
I’ll hold you to that my dear … however, I don’t do the lottery anymore so my dreams have turned to dry ash … I’m not content with my lot, more … accepting. Sad, I know. Hope you are well Ellen, I’m still reading you. ❤️❤️❤️🌹🌹🌹