RD201902

By Juliana LaBianca

W

henever Jane Lockshin went out to lunch

with her elderly aunt Sylvia, she made a

point to pick up the tab. After all, Sylvia

Bloom was a modest secretary, a widow of

more than a decade who lived in a one-bedroom Brook-

lyn apartment and took the subway everywhere, including

to her job at a Manhattan law firm. She worked there—

full-time—until she was 96. Simply put, Lockshin didn’t

want Aunt Sylvia to blow her budget on lunch.

So when Bloom died in 2016, at 97, it was something of

a shock to discover that she’d left behind a multimillion-

dollar estate. Almost as shocking: She had chosen to give

In life, they were humble

SECRETARIES,

TEACHERS, and JANITORS.

When they died, they were richer

than anyone knew—and they

GAVE MILLIONS

TO CHARITY

72 illustrations by Adam Cruft

GOOD DEEDS