Widower finds dollar bill signed by his beloved wife years after accidentally spending it

By Maria Kyriacou

Widower finds dollar bill signed by his beloved wife years after accidentally spending it
Read on for the sweetest tale about a widower, serendipity and a very special dollar bill

A man who lost the love of his life to cancer years ago has had a serendipitous reunion with a dollar bill his late wife had signed.

Grace Bilello was initially diagnosed with cancer in 2001, went through chemotherapy and radiation, only to have the cancer return, three years later.

When Grace was still alive, Peter Bilello thought it might be a fun idea for him and his wife to sign a dollar bill each.  “I told my wife, ‘I’m going to sign one on the front: Peter B. I want you to sign one, too, for Gracie B,’” he said. “I put those 2 dollars in my wallet.”

Unfortunately after keeping the bills safe in his wallet for a year, Peter accidentally spent them. He was devastated when he realised what had happened and thought he’d never see them again.

The loving couple married in Italy over 50 years ago, and raised their family of two children, then four grandchildren in Connecticut.

Billelo says they enjoyed spending every moment together, and described his wife as “a very good wife, very good cook and very good mother.”

On a visit to a sandwich shop with his 14-year-old granddaughter Ashley, Bilello noticed immediately that the change he’d received had his wife’s familiar signature on it. They both began to cry, overwhelmed with the sweet surprise.

“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.”

Bilello described finding the bill after five years as a miracle exclaiming, “Nobody’s gonna get that dollar anymore. No way.”

The next miracle for Bilello would be to find his own bill, and pop them side-by-side in his wallet.

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