“Hi Mrs. Warren, this is Brian Mullaney from the Smile Train,” I said. “Calling to thank you for the generous donation you sent us.”

“Aw, Mr. Mullaney that’s very sweet but you didn’t have to call,” Pat Warren replied.

“Well, we’re small charity and our average donation is just $50. Anytime we get a large donation like your $5,000 donation, I always call and thank the donor to let you know how much it means to us.” I told her. “In fact, I’m coming out to Seattle in a couple of weeks and I’ve even dropped by and thanked you and Mr. Warren in person if it was convenient for you.”

She roared with laughter. “Come to see us? Do you have any idea where Hoquiam is? NOBODY ever comes to see us!”

She had no idea that I was serious about coming to thank her and her husband.

And I have no idea that Dick and Pat Warren were the biggest Washington Mega Millions Lottery winners in history. Their prize? $93 million.

Two weeks later, I drive two hours south from Seattle to Hoquiam, Washington, population 8,500. Hoquiam is a small, quiet, old logging town that has lost a lot of manufacturing and mill jobs. I pull up to Warren’s house and Dick is in the front yard shaking his head, “Can’t believe you actually came,” he tells me.

The Warrens were very warm and welcoming. Both in their early 70 years, they were childhood sweethearts and married for 48 years. Dick used to work as a consumer product manager at Procter & Gamble and was volunteering at the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Pat was a director at the Hoquiam Food Bank.

After some small talk, Pat made us some lunch and we sat down to eat in the kitchen. I tell them about The Smile Train, and they tell me what it was like to win almost $100 million lottery prize.

Dick had a weekly allowance of $10 to spend on lottery tickets which he spent at Swanson’s Grocery Store. The day he bought the winning ticket, somebody cut in line in front of Dick – for which he will be forever grateful.

Since they won the jackpot, Dick and Pat said their lives haven’t changed much — except for a constant stream of mail and phone calls from folks with ideas about how to spend all their money.

They have gotten hundreds of calls – 110 calls the first day their identities were disclosed and 700 calls the first week – from starving college students and ailing cancer patients to car dealerships and charities. Dick said the calls now, a few years later, had gone down to 2-3 a day and many are from scam artists.

Pat told me Jimmy Carter called her to thank her for a donation to Habitat for Humanity which was nice but “unlike” me, he never offered to come to visit.

They’ve been swamped with mail from financial planners and organizations seeking grants. One day, they received more than 50 pounds of mail which had to be delivered in a special truck.

But while the world around them changed, Dick and Pat Warren did not. They kept their same jobs, their same friends, the same charities that they had been supporting for many years.

The lottery just gave them a vehicle to give more money away – which has always been something they liked to do.

Dick said, “We have been very fortunate in our life and do not need a lot of material things.”

I really admired Dick and Pat for how they handled their unbelievable windfall. It says a lot about them, their values and their character. I doubt I would ever have been so grounded.

Just imagine receiving a bank wire for $40 million in cash and not buying a new house, a new car, a yacht, a plane and a new life.

They did buy a new condo –but it was SMALLER than their pre-Mega Millions house: a modest, two-bedroom, 1,400 square foot home.

That tells you all you need to know.

Things eventually quieted down as Dick and Pat’s donations went up, up and up. They started giving away millions of dollars mostly to well-known charities, serving a wide variety of causes.

I was grateful that Smile Train was one of their favorite charities and they were extremely generous to us.

Ed even came on a trip with us to India and he was a great addition.

I really enjoyed getting to know both of them. Pat was extremely well-read and had a wicked sense of humor – both reminded me of my mother. And Dick was just a sweet guy with a big heart and a big smile. And they both loved helping other people.

That’s why all that money didn’t change them.

They were already winners before they won.