Saturday, November 22, 1997

Woman gives away $11.8 million lottery prize: "God takes care of me"

"If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven."

- Matthew 19:21

By AMY WESTFELDT / Associated Press Writer

SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) - Eleanor Boyer's house is paid for. She has her pension. And no, even though her 1968 Chevy Malibu is in the shop, she doesn't need a new car.

What could she possibly want with the $11.8 million she won this month in the state lottery?

"God takes care of me," declared Ms. Boyer, a 73-year-old, never-married retiree who prides herself on her self-reliance and her unshakable faith.

Ms. Boyer decided to make her newfound wealth a gift to everyone but herself, donating the $8 million or so, after taxes, to her church and her town.

Although the donation stunned the congregation at Church of the Immaculate Conception and a community where the locals are kind enough to nod and smile at strangers, theologians said Ms. Boyer's gift should not surprise Christians who have faith.

"We are constantly being called during the course of life to let go and to trust in God," said Monsignor David Lee of the Buffalo diocese. "In her heart, she is answering the call, to share what we have with those who are in need."

But one of her pastors, Brian Nolan, said even the most giving souls don't necessarily give it all.

"Your faith doesn't teach you to give all your wealth away," Nolan said. "There's just a deep spirit there."

A week after reporters from around the nation descended on her modest, immaculate Cape Cod home, Ms. Boyer appeared bored by the questions.

"I always said if I won I'd give half of it to the church," she said, shrugging in her faux fur hat and trench coat as she waited for a neighbor to drive her to a meeting with the church's financial adviser.

Ms. Boyer has spent a lifetime of giving and praying, rising at 5:30 each day to pray at home, then at 7 a.m. Mass. She taught catechism classes and helped count collection money over the years for the 2,800-family congregation.

She also nurtured those beyond her church family, taking early retirement from a chemical company where she worked as a buyer to nurse her sick mother for seven years.

On her block, next-door neighbor Dave Allena says, "she's the one that shovels everybody's sidewalk" when it snows.

Allena says he and other neighbors have had to persuade Ms. Boyer not to give every cent of her winnings to others because of the high taxes charged to first-time millionaires in New Jersey.

"She gives too much away, she's not going to be able to pay her tax liability," he said. "So they're going to come and take her house."

But many organizations in this town of 12,000 about 50 miles west of New York City are celebrating a windfall, including the town's rescue squad, the volunteer fire department, and Great Expectations, a clinic where up to six homeless, pregnant women find shelter.

"It's a dream come true," said clinic director Peg Wright of the donation. She says she wants to pay for a discharge plan that oversees the women's progress for a year after giving birth.

The church hasn't decided how to spend its money.

Ms. Boyer's giveaway may have been most shocking to the millions of Americans who pray daily for a lucky number that will bring them new wealth and a new life.

"It's sort of counterculture, because we hold out the promise of the lottery changing one's life, giving the answer to all one's problems," said Monsignor George Trabold, a former development director for the Newark archdiocese.

"Her values were not really in material things. A new car is not going to make her a happier person."

Ms. Boyer is far more interested in talking about how she almost didn't win the lottery. Every week, she religiously played $2 on the Pick 6, calling it a donation to the state education fund rather than a gamble.

"This time, I took $5 worth," she said. "If I just took my $2, the guy behind me would have won."

Perhaps, Allena suggests, luck had nothing to do with it.

"She didn't play to win," Allena said. "If she won, it was going to be an accident, and it was going to be from God."