Lottery winner hides ‘in my bed’
– A 53-year-old Massachusetts mother of two who scooped the largest single jackpot in US history – $758.7 million (R9.9 billion) – said it was a dream come true and immediately quit her hospital job of 32 years.
Mavis Wanczyk said she had played the lottery as a “pipe dream,” never believing it would one day be possible for her to retire early from the Mercy Medical Centre, where she worked in patient care.
On Thursday, that dream came true.
“I’ve called them and told them I will not be coming back,” she said to laughter at a news conference hosted by the Massachusetts State Lottery, at which she was wearing black-framed glasses, a zip-up hooded black sweater over a grey lace top, necklace and shoulder-length thick auburn hair.
“I’m going to go hide in my bed!” she added when asked how she planned to celebrate.
Wanczyk selected the winning numbers – which included family birthdays – and bought the ticket from a convenience store in Chicopee, a small town 160km west of Boston, calling it “a chance I had to take”.
“I was just there to buy it for luck,” she explained, chewing gum and grinning. Accompanied by her mother and two sisters, she was still dazed after her monumental win.
It came nine months after the father of her children, William Wanczyk, a former firefighter, was killed on November 6 by a hitand-run driver while waiting at a bus shelter in the Massachusetts town of Amherst.
A local man, accused of driving a pick-up truck at high speed, was subsequently charged.
Powerball called Wednesday’s draw “the biggest lottery prize ever awarded to one single person.”
The $758.7 million jackpot is Powerball’s highest since a January 2016 world record of $1.6 billion, which was split between three ticket holders, from California, Florida and Tennessee. Each took home $528.8 million.
The retailer that sold the winning ticket is to receive $50 000, which he has committed to local charities.
Wanczyk now has the choice of taking the jackpot as an annuity spread over 30 years or a one-off cash lump sum – reportedly $336 million after taxes. –
New York
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