Man finds dollar bill with beloved late wife’s signature

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Every once in awhile, a bill passes through your hands with a phone number, a drawing, or a name. But have you really given it a second thought?

For Peter Bilello, every dollar bill he has come across over the past five years has been scrutinized and examined. That is until he found what he was looking for – his late wife’s signature.

The pair had each signed a dollar bill and Bilello kept them both in his wallet, he told ABC News.

“I told my wife, ‘I’m going to sign one on the front: Peter B. I want you to sign one, too, for Grace B.,‘” he said. But a year later, he accidentally spent the money.

“I don’t know where I used the two dollars,” said Bilello. “I came home and told my wife: ‘Grace, I made a big mistake today. … I’m never going to see [the dollars again].'”

But in a recent chance outing to a sandwich shop with his 14-year-old granddaughter, Ashley, Bilello received three dollar bills in change – and one featured the small signature of “Gracie B.”

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“I said, ‘Oh my god, Ashley, look.’ We started to cry,” Bilello said. “We were so happy to get the dollar back.

“I told my granddaughter, we’re going to go straight to the cemetery, and tell … my wife that we got the dollar back. I showed the dollar to my wife and said, ‘Grace, look, I got your dollar back.'”

The pair were married in Italy over 50 years ago and moved to Connecticut, where they raised two children. In 2001, Grace was diagnosed with cancer and underwent many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.

“Me and my wife were together all the time,” Bilello told ABC. “She goes to chemo, I sit down next to her. And coming home, she lays down on the couch. She’s very sick after the chemo, and [I] do all the work in the house.”

In 2014, after 13 cancer-free years and celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, Grace passed away.

“It’s a miracle to get [the dollar bill] back after five years,” Bilello said. “Nobody’s gonna get that dollar anymore. No way.”

As for the one that he signed, Bilello says he is hopeful it will one day find its way back.