The spry, 84-year-old winner arrived at Lottery Headquarters accompanied by her daughter to claim her second-tier Mega Millions prize. Grinning broadly, she appeared nonplused by her newfound wealth.
The occasional Lottery player stopped into her local country store on March 14th and with a few stray dollars in her purse decided to buy three Lottery tickets. “I asked the clerk what to play,” said the widowed mother-of-three. On the clerk’s recommend, she purchased three Quick Pick Mega Millions tickets for March 16th’s drawing.
Soon after that evening’s numbers were drawn, folks in the small town were buzzing about a winning ticket being sold right in their own backyard. But, it wasn’t until returning to the store and asking the clerk to check her ticket, that the Avenue woman found out that she was the lucky winner.
“When the scanner read, See Lottery, I asked ‘what does that mean,’” related the woman. “When the clerk told me I’d won, I thought it was $800 or $900. When she said $250,000, I said ‘no way!’”
Maintaining her stoic demeanor, she quickly phoned her children with the good news. “Hold your pants, I’ve got something good to tell you. When I said what I’d won, there was a big scream.”
The octogenarian said that she will put her winnings in the bank. “She’s going to save it for her old age,” said her daughter with a laugh.
The winning ticket was purchased at Murphy’s Town & Country, located at 21270 Abell Rd. in Avenue.