DANBURY, Conn. - On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.
Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store on Nov. 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his yard in Danbury.
On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.
"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 79, said at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill.
Donald Peters usually bought the tickets for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she, their three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.
"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."
She said she thought she had won $6 million but was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.
Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.
She does not yet know what she will do with the money.
"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one. I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun," she said, referring to the casino in Connecticut. "I'm going to go home and sit and think."
The Peters children think their father would have appreciated the irony.
"He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd say, 'Figures!'"
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Nagging Wife Causes Lotto Win
We have all seen the stereotype of the henpecked husband and the nagging wife. The image of the nagging wife has provided fodder for comedians for centuries. Recently in New Zealand there was a case of a nagging wife but with an interesting twist.
In Auckland New Zealand a husband who did not want to be identified said that his wife had been nagging him to buy ticket for New Zealand’s lottery. The man bought the lottery ticket just two minutes before ticket sales closed. “My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so I when saw the Lotto sign. I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed. I must have been their last customer of the night.”
The man stated that the couple had a couple of ‘rough’ years due to the loss of one income after having children. He discovered their newly won fortune thanks to his wife’s request for a barbecued sausage. Out shopping for bargains, the man said he didn’t have enough money to buy his wife the sausage she’d asked him for. So he decided to check his Saturday lottery ticket in case he’d won a small prize.
Much to his surprise the husband found out he had won the lottery jackpot. “I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner,” he said. When he showed the printout to his wife, she initially thought they had won $4,200 (NZ$7,700). “When she realized how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said: ‘but all I wanted was a sausage.’”
The unnamed man stated, “I have never been so glad to listen to my wife’s nagging.” We should all be so lucky.
In Auckland New Zealand a husband who did not want to be identified said that his wife had been nagging him to buy ticket for New Zealand’s lottery. The man bought the lottery ticket just two minutes before ticket sales closed. “My wife had been nagging me all week to get a ticket, so I when saw the Lotto sign. I sprinted in to get the ticket before they closed. I must have been their last customer of the night.”
The man stated that the couple had a couple of ‘rough’ years due to the loss of one income after having children. He discovered their newly won fortune thanks to his wife’s request for a barbecued sausage. Out shopping for bargains, the man said he didn’t have enough money to buy his wife the sausage she’d asked him for. So he decided to check his Saturday lottery ticket in case he’d won a small prize.
Much to his surprise the husband found out he had won the lottery jackpot. “I could not believe it when they said I was actually the big winner,” he said. When he showed the printout to his wife, she initially thought they had won $4,200 (NZ$7,700). “When she realized how much it really was, she fell to the floor, and then said: ‘but all I wanted was a sausage.’”
The unnamed man stated, “I have never been so glad to listen to my wife’s nagging.” We should all be so lucky.
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