Lottery win caps a life of service

LOWELL -- Much of her life, Geraldine Williams was an invisible servant to others, wiping clean their dirt, scrubbing their floors, emptying their trash.

She cleaned the houses of those who can afford to have others take care of their domestic chores. For 15 years, she cleaned three office and academic buildings on the campus of University of Massachusetts at Lowell.

Co-workers said Williams left surfaces spotless. Friends and neighbors say she brought the same energy to helping others, from senior citizens she ferried to and from doctor appointments to a neighbor whose vacant lot she helped mow.

After Williams retired from her janitor's job a couple of years ago, she didn't stop cleaning private houses, earning extra money to pad her pension. Friends described Williams, who took home a check yesterday for more than $117 million, as a vigorous worker who seems younger than her 67 years.

This week, luck and infinitesimal odds conspired to turn the former custodian into a millionaire many times over. And the woman who spent decades doing often-overlooked work took center stage as she accepted the largest lottery jackpot in state history.

Though Williams never had much money, friends say she was always generous with what she had. Mary Rourke, an 85-year-old Lowell woman whom Williams visits regularly to offer rides to doctor appointments and to run errands, recalled how Williams would show up with something she thought Rourke needed. Recently, Williams brought a new bedspread.

Rourke, who uses a wheelchair, lives in a housing complex for the elderly in Lowell. She has known Williams for more than 25 years.

"She is the best friend I have," Rourke said. "I don't know what I would do without her. She does the things for me my home-health aides can't."

When Williams arrived at Rourke's house July 2, she announced that she had just bought a Mega Millions ticket. She took her older friend out for dinner and wouldn't let her pay. Just hours later, at 6 a.m. Saturday, Williams learned she was a multimillionaire.

Paula Peacock, who lives across the street from the two-family house in Lowell where she said Williams moved in with her companion, Tom Scanlon, a decade ago, said her neighbor rises each morning at 5:30. Williams shares lawn-mowing chores for the vacant lot next to her house, even though she doesn't own the property, Peacock said, just to help keep the neighborhood tidy.

Williams's check yesterday might have been her biggest winning, but it wasn't her first, Peacock said.

"The funny thing is she went to Foxwoods two weeks ago and came home with $1,000 and acted like she won a million," Peacock said.

When Williams cleaned houses, she was cheered by a wealthy client who observed: "You should never put anyone beneath anyone else," said her lawyer, Steven C. Panagiotakos, a state senator from Lowell.

"She always found that was a nice comfort," he said. "She's on the other side now."

Globe correspondent Alonso Soto contributed to this report. Kathleen Burge can be reached at kburge@globe.com.