Widow’s anguish seeing car that killed husband
Woman wakes up to dream Lotto win
John Noel Small, 50, was jailed in February after being found guilty by a jury of dangerous driving causing death.
Mr Wills’ widow Liz lives at Millstream with her two young sons Lee, 4, and Murray Junior, 1, while Small’s family relocated to nearby Ravenshoe.
Ms Wills said the still-damaged Jeep was on the nature strip in front of the house on Ravenshoe’s main street.
She said a member of her family had asked for the car to be moved from view.
“The first time I saw the car parked there it was like getting king hit with a log. I just froze,” she said.
“I had to pull over and gather my thoughts.
“Especially to see the damage on the car, it’s just damage from Murray basically. So now I try to prepare myself mentally in case I see that car.”
She said she saw the car each time she drove her boys to daycare. If she needed to go shopping in Atherton it involved travelling past the vehicle, the accident scene and the Atherton cemetery where Mr Wills is buried.
“And that’s just going to get some milk,” she said.
“We’re just going to have to move I think.
“We’ll still (stay) on the Tablelands. Family is here. But I’ve been here (in the Ravenshoe area) for 30 years.”
Ms Wills said she feared someone may try to take vigilante action if the vehicle wasn’t moved. “I don’t want to see that happen,” she said.
Small was sentenced to two years jail, suspended after nine months, in the Cairns District Court in February.
A CAIRNS woman thought her eyes were playing tricks when she checked the results of her online Saturday Gold Lotto entry and saw she was a millionaire.
The woman held one of five division-one winning entries nationally in Saturday’s draw, with each division one winning entry taking home a prize of $1,982,910.
It adds to an impressive string of lottery wins for the Far North over the past couple of years, including two $40 million windfalls since 2017.
“I fell asleep on the couch on Saturday night and woke up around midnight,” the woman said yesterday.
“I checked the Lott app and saw that I had won division one and because I was half asleep, I truly thought I was seeing things. I thought the app was playing tricks on me.
“You just don’t expect it to happen. I’m so excited.”
“Once all this craziness calms down, we’re going to go travelling around Australia,” she said.
“We’re going to retire a lot earlier than we thought and just start living our dream retirement.
“And of course we will be helping our family out as well.”
The woman had bought an online 36-game QuickPick.
The win is the second lottery success in just a week for the Far North, after a Cairns man won $250,000 from an Instant Scratch-It.