And then...

Sports fans are quite used to sudden reversals of fortune. A baseball team will fight back to take a lead in the ninth inning after being behind all night, only to see a couple of cheap hits score two wins and lose in the bottom of the ninth.

And we've all seen football teams that score on a long touchdown drive at the end of a game, going ahead by two points, and then the other team runs back the ensuing kickoff for the winning touchdown.

Life takes funny twists and turns...well, funny sometimes, and downright tragic sometimes.

Take the up and down luck of Gregory Jarvis, pictured above, in Michigan. He bought a lottery ticket that paid off with a $45,000 prize.

And then, within two weeks, he drowned.

I guess most of us have been to, or at least picture, places like Duffy's Blue Water Inn in Caseville, Huron County, MI. Mr Jarvis was there all the time, and he hit the Club Keno game "The Jack" for $44,983, but he never got around to claiming the prize.

Days later, he was found dead on a private beach near Saginaw Bay.

Mr Jarvis's life ended at age 57. The autopsy revealed he had drowned, according to Caseville police Chief Kyle Romzek, who told the local news that no foul play was suspected, and that from all evidence, Jarvis had fallen and hit his head while tying up a boat.

And he had not yet claimed his prize. Someone from the Blue Water Inn told the news that ID issues had prevented Jarvis from getting his loot. In Michigan, if you win a lottery prize worth more than $600, you need a photo ID and a Social Security card.  

Jarvis had no Social Security card, but in the time between his Keno hit and his death, he had taken steps to get a new one issued to him. Who knows how having that sort of a stake could have turned his life around to a better way of living? 

Blue Water Inn owner Dawn Talaski told WJRT News that Jarvis was a regular at the Inn.

"Very nice guy, he was here every day."

And now he isn't.

  

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