Sylvia Bloom was an ordinary woman, a working slug secretary in one of her hometown law firms. She recently died at age 96 — leaving behind something extraordinary.
The Left Behind books that brainwashed millions of readers with its phony “Rapture” theology enriched the two authors of the book series.
They made tens of millions of dollars off the books and related “Left Behind” commercial products. (Don’t get me started on my distaste for those two. See here.)
Somebody should write a book about the great people who leave behind millions of dollars to enrich the lives of people for generations to come.
People like Sylvia Bloom, who retired secretary who died at the other day at age 96.
Many people knew that Ms. Bloom worked for Brooklyn law firm for 67 years. Nobody knew that she was amassing a fortune in all those years until the world learned that she willed $8 million for college scholarships.
This is from the always great New York Times:
-
Even by the dizzying standards of New York City philanthropy, a recent $6.24 million donation to the Henry Street Settlement on the Lower East Side was a whopper — the largest single gift from an individual to the social service group in its 125-year history.
It was not donated by some billionaire benefactor, but by a frugal legal secretary from Brooklyn who toiled for the same law firm for 67 years until she retired at age 96 and died not long afterward in 2016.
Her name was Sylvia Bloom and even her closest friends and relatives had no idea she had amassed a fortune over the decades. She did this by shrewdly observing the investments made by the lawyers she served.
“She was a secretary in an era when they ran their boss’s lives, including their personal investments,” recalled her niece Jane Lockshin. “So when the boss would buy a stock, she would make the purchase for him, and then buy the same stock for herself, but in a smaller amount because she was on a secretary’s salary.”
Since Ms. Bloom never talked about this, even to those closest to her, the fact that she had carefully cultivated more than $9 million among three brokerage houses and 11 banks, emerged only at the end of her life — “an oh my God moment,” said Ms. Lockshin, the executor of Ms. Bloom’s estate.
This kind of story pops up from time to time and is definitely the kind of story that makes you go “Wow!” — in a good way.
These are the kind of quiet, humble people who quietly do extraordinary things with and in their lives.
They are the kind of people who genuinely advance shalom, or the kingdom of God, out of pure, unadulterated lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, and of course, love.
Long may their stories be told.
Please go hear to read the whole story.
I also loved the story about this woman. What a glorious legacy!
Great story; and what a wonderful legacy. Most people who leave these kind of donations do it during their lifetimes so they can get public recognition; that she didn’t let it be known until after she died says volumes about her character.