RALEIGH -- Camelia McClain learned last week the receptionist job she'd held for 22 years would be eliminated. But by week's end, she had collected the severance package of her dreams.
McClain, 39, won the first $4 million prize in the new Cash Blowout lottery game Thursday when she bought two $20 tickets at the Capital Food Mart on Capital Boulevard two days after learning she soon would be unemployed. On Friday she claimed her first of 20 annual payments, $136,006 after taxes.
Monday, McClain called the experience "unreal." Nonetheless, she hopes to deflect attention from her good fortune.
"I just want it to be the same. I'm still the same person. I'll always be the same person," she said.
She had said her family would play a role in how the money would be spent. In a North Carolina Education Lottery press release, she said she planned to meet with her close-knit family on Sunday, when they all eat together, and talk about what to do.
The $4 Million Cash Blowout started Jan. 10, and has two remaining top prizes and seven $1 million prizes among about 7.2 million printed tickets. Roughly one in three ticket breaks even or better, one in 14 wins $50 or more, and fewer than one in 2,200 wins at least $1,000.
Despite the odds, McClain managed to turn a rough week into the most lucrative of her life.
"I'd rather go to church and tell people what happened than have it printed in the newspaper and have people thinking I'm looking for attention," McClain said.
