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A grandmother in Montgomery County recently had a tough - but enviable - decision to make after winning a second-tier prize playing a Cash4Life Maryland Lottery ticket: a million bucks or $1,000 a week-for-life.
The lucky Olney woman took the former after the drawing on Wednesday, Oct. 9, claiming the one-time payment of $1 million over the option of a $1,000-a-week-for-life annuity paid in annual installments of $52,000 a year.
Winning numbers for the Oct. 9 drawing: 07-12-21-44-47 with a Cash Ball of 03.
She said that she learned of her fortuitous fate while sitting at home in Olney minutes after the 9 p.m. drawing when she pulled up the results and was shell-shocked.
“I had the ticket in one hand and my phone with the numbers in the other hand. I said ‘Am I seeing double?’” the winner recalls thinking.
She was not, hitting all five numbers, and only missing the Cash Ball on a ticket sold at 7-Eleven in the 18000 block of Georgia Avenue in Olney.
The big win was also a surprise, the woman said, because she is not a regular Cash4Life player, and she only picked up the ticket as she was passing the convenience store while stuck in traffic.
According to Lottery officials, "the lucky lady was filling out a Pick 3/4/5 playslip in the store and saw she had $2 left to spend.
"Deciding to play one other game, she settled on Cash4Life and bought the one $2 quick-pick ticket," thy continued. "She estimated that she has only played the game two to three times in her life."
The winner stated that she has no immediate plans for the unexpected cash, and has plans to meet with a financial adviser to determine how best to spend the money.
"It was just luck that I played it."
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