Man who lost wife years ago finds dollar bill…with her name on it
Peter Bilello married Grace, the love of his life, over 50 years ago. They got married in Italy and then moved to Connecticut to spend their lives together raising their two children and now four grandchildren. The couple had a very special, very loving relationship and rarely spent time apart. Bilello told ABC News, “She was a very good wife, very good cook, very good mother. Wherever my wife would go, I go.” They were always together and always loving each other.
But in 2001, Grace was diagnosed with cancer. She went through chemotherapy and radiation, but the treatments didn’t seem to help. “I thought it was going to be OK,” he said. But three years after she finished her treatment, the cancer returned, and she had to endure chemo and radiation once again.
“Me and my wife were together all the time,” Bilello said. “She goes to chemo, I sit down next to her. And coming home, she lays down on the couch. She’s very sick after the chemo, and [I] do all the work in the house.”
Years went by and and life went back to normal — Grace was in remission and their life together was just as wonderful and loving and perfect. One day, Bilello thought it would be fun if they each signed their names on a dollar bill. “I told my wife, ‘I’m going to sign one on the front: Peter B. I want you to sign one, too, for Grace B.,’” he said. “I put those 2 dollars in my wallet.” He kept the bills safe in his wallet for about a year, but then five years ago, he accidentally spent them — which is a totally reasonable thing to do with dollar bills, but pretty upsetting when it’s an accident, and when that dollar bill had major sentimental value.
Bilello said, “I don’t know where I used the two dollars. I came home and told my wife, ‘Grace, I made a big mistake today. … I’m never going to see [the dollars again].’” Grace must have forgiven her husband for losing the money, because a few years later in 2014, they celebrated their 50th anniversary. But sadly, shortly after their anniversary and 13 cancer-free years, Grace passed away.
In a serendipitous turn of events, when Bilello took his 14-year-old granddaughter Ashley to a sandwich shop for lunch, they received three dollar bills as change — and Bilello quickly noticed that one of those dollar bills had a signature on it that he recognized — “Gracie B.”
“I said, ‘Oh my god, Ashley, look.’ We started to cry,” Bilello said. “We were so happy to get the dollar back. I never thought I’d get that dollar back.” Bilello said, “I told my granddaughter, we’re going to go straight to the cemetery, and tell nonna (Italian for grandmother), my wife, that we got the dollar back. I showed the dollar to my wife and said, ‘Grace, look, I got your dollar back.’” So so so sweet!
Bilello is certain that this wasn’t just a “right time, right place” sort of thing. It’s a miracle, and he believes that Grace made it happen. “It’s a miracle to get it back after five years,” Bilello said. “Who knows how many million people got that dollar in their hands… Nobody’s gonna get that dollar anymore. No way.”
But what about the dollar he signed? “Who knows where it is,” Bilello said. “I’d be happy to get my dollar back.” We have a feeling that one day he will.
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