Lucky people...

I need to start this one with a little introduction.
As many people with basic history- knowledge might know, when at the end of WW2 the Americans got to Germany, German families had to clear out their spaces for the American soldiers to basically move in. That's also what happened to my grandfather, whose room became the temporary home of Bob - one of the soldiers. As strange as this situation might have been, Karl (my grandfather) and Bob remain friends to this day. Bob and his family live in Albany, and Karl calls him every other month, they write holiday cards back and forth, and keep a great long- distance- friendship. Many years ago (I was just born...) my grandparents actually visited them here in the States and had a great time. So - when I moved to NY over ten years ago, naturally my family kept telling me to get in touch with our friends in Albany. "Wouldn't it be great to stay in touch with friends of the family" that sort of thing.
And about a week ago I learned that one should always listen to parents' advice.
OK... Bob has a son who is married to a woman who didn't know what she should give her husband for their 17th anniversary. In the last minute she went to a little corner store and purchased a lottery ticket. And guess what!? They won 10 million Dollars!
First of all: Somewhere inside I always doubted the reality of lottery winners. We hear about them on TV, we might see one of those annoying photos of the winners carrying larger than life checks, but somehow I always felt it was all staged in order to make people buy the tickets. In that perspective it is kinda cool to KNOW that it is actually true!
The other thing is though that I consider myself a fairly lucky person. So - IF the winning of lottery- money was real, I thought that I might just be lucky enough to win one day (granted I would start playing...). But now I just see that chance fade away - isn't winning the lottery so rare that knowing a winner statistically means that I really can't win myself!?
And last, but not least: Why did I not listen?????? I can't just start calling them NOW!!! "Hey guys... I am Karl's grandson; what's up? I've been trying to reach you for ten years, but your phone has always been busy...!?"