A Pennsylvania widow won a $1 million jackpot just weeks before her husband died, and he was worried his wife would struggle financially after he passed away.
Retiree Karen Coffman claims divine intervention led to her winning the jackpot after scratching out a state lottery ticket in April, just two weeks before her husband, Robert, died of brain cancer.
“I think he was concerned and he was planning something. I hope he takes this lightly,” the 61-year-old said at an event with lottery officials on Thursday.
She bought the ticket for $20 at a local gas station in Freeport, a Pittsburgh suburb.
When Coffman first realized she’d won $1 million, she couldn’t believe her eyes as the attendant checked the huge stack of cash, and when she got home and told her husband about her good fortune, he was also shocked.
“When I told him about the prize, he thought I was lying,” she said.
“For years I told him, ‘Just watch, one day I’m going to win a million dollars. Just watch,'” recalled Coffman, who previously won $65,000 at the same BP gas station. According to CBS News Pittsburgh.
“And he just laughed and said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Come on, with all my luck, I’m going to get a hit,'” Coffman continued. “And every time I got a hit, I told him, ‘Rob, you go ahead. Don’t worry about it. I’m OK.'”
Coffman, a former aged care worker, used the lump sum to take relatives on a lavish Disney trip and is also considering moving to Florida.
“I don’t want winter anymore,” she said. “I hate the cold.”
With post wire
