In 2016, Sylvia Bloom died.
Her niece, Jane Lockshin, was the executor of her estate. She began going through her aunt's affairs.
There was an account.
Then another.
Then another.
In the end, there were three brokerage houses and 11 different banks.
The total was more than $9 million.
The secretary who rode the subway. The woman in the rent-controlled apartment. She had quietly become a multimillionaire.
Paul Hyams had worked alongside her for more than 35 years. He was "completely astounded."
"She could have lived on Park Avenue if she wanted to," he said.
Even her husband, Raymond, a firefighter who later became a schoolteacher, may never have known. It was "very possible," Lockshin said, that not even he knew how much his wife was worth.
So how does a secretary end up with $9 million?