I wanted to share a great story about one of the CT Inauguration ticket lottery winners who will be joining me in DC next week.

From the Hartford Courant:

Tickets to Inauguration a Thrill for Middletown Resident

By Melissa Pionzio

It had been a week of winning - something Middletown resident Ethel Peltz said she has rarely done in her 80-something years - win things.

First she attended a December luncheon with Brad Davis and won a door prize - a nice bottle of white wine in a pretty cobalt blue bottle that everyone told her was just as nice as its contents.

Then she attended a Hadassah meeting at the home of a Irene Silverstein in Portland, from which she took home a $40 raffle prize.

Things were really looking good, she thought.

"My friends told me I was on a winning streak and that things come in threes," she said.

So Ethel went out and bought a few lottery tickets, but it turned out that wasn't where her luck would land...it was waiting for something that in her eyes, is a much better prize.

"I got a letter a few days later about the lottery," she said, of the online drawing she had entered on a whim, for complimentary tickets to Barack Obama's upcoming Presidential Inauguration offered by Sen. Christopher Dodd "And I won, I couldn't believe it! I never win anything. I thought, is somebody playing a joke on me? Can you believe it? In my lifetime, I'm alive to see it."

To say Ethel is excited about winning the tickets is an understatement. She is over the moon, and so is her daughter Lois Peltz, who will accompany Ethel to Washington D.C. on Jan. 19, 20 and 21 to see the man they both think so highly of, become our next president.

Lois, who sounds like quite a woman, chose not to talk with me about going. She told her mom, "you won this, this is your moment."

"Everytime I look in the paper, there is news about all the people that are coming from all over the world and I think, what am I getting myself into?" Ethel said, shaking her head. But then, when she thinks about seeing Obama on the podium, surrounded by those little girls of his and his beautiful, stylish Michelle, Ethel beams.

"I think I'm going to be over-awed, just being there with the crowds, just seeing Obama," she said. "I feel he is so honest and so truthful. There is going to be a drastic change in all of our lives."

Since walking long distances can be tiresome - their hotel is a mile from the inauguration site - Sen. Dodd's Deputy Chief of Staff Lori McGrogin told Ethel that she could watch from Sen. Dodd's wait room - a warm, secure area that will provide Ethel and Lois with an excellent view of everything.

"And they will serve coffee and danish," Ethel added.

Ethel's admiration for Mr. Obama grew even more after she and Lois saw him speak at Wesleyan University's commencement ceremonies last year.

"My daughter was so excited about Obama coming to Wesleyan and she is a work-a-holic this kid, but she said 'Mom, if he comes, I'm going," said Ethel. "Boy did we go."

Once there, they sat on the hillside with the rest of the crowd and were immediately offered tickets to the field, which provided a closer view.

"They didn't collect any of our tickets, so we called my son Bob, who was in Hartford on Business, and he was able to come too," said Ethel. "It was the first time in a long time I had myh two chilren to myself in one place. After that I thought, woudln't it be something to go to the inauguration."

Well she's going, and in addition to the inauguration, there will be sights to see, a parade and free concerts to attend, fireworks to marvel at and the overall excitement of this historic time to enjoy.

"He sends me a message that he is very sincere, that he is going to help people," Ethel said of Obama. "I just memorized the Gettysburg Address, and it says that government of the people, by the people and for the people shall not perish from this earth. That's how I feel about Obama, he is one of us and we shall not perish from the earth."