Sister paying tribute to brother scores NC lottery prize. ‘Like he’s watching over us’
A woman was honoring her brother when she scored a winning lottery ticket in North Carolina.
“It makes me feel like he’s watching over us,” Teresa Ellis, 42, told the N.C. Education Lottery said in a news release.
Ellis won a $100,000 prize three months after the death of her brother. Though she hadn’t played Powerball in years, she said she was drawn to the game because her brother liked to play it.
Ellis tried her luck in Washington, a town in Beaufort County and roughly 110 miles east of Raleigh. While at a Speedway gas station, officials said she used her brother’s birthday to help choose her numbers for the Powerball game.
It turns out, the $3 Powerball ticket matched enough numbers in the March 21 drawing to win big.
“It feels like this is what he had planned for me,” Ellis said in the news release. “It’s kind of surreal.”
Ellis, a restaurant manager and mother of two, kept $71,011 after taxes. She told the N.C. Education Lottery she plans to put her prize money toward bills and savings.
It’s not the first time a North Carolina lottery player has won big while paying tribute.
Last year, a woman scored a jackpot prize when she bought a ticket with her late grandmother’s “lucky numbers,” McClatchy News reported.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWhen gambling is more than a game
Gambling is designed to be a source of entertainment.
If you or a loved one shows signs of gambling addiction, you can seek help by calling the national gambling hotline at 1-800-522-4700 or visiting the National Council on Problem Gambling website.
