“Friday, October 26th started out cognate with most other days, only it was kind of special for me because I had acquire my first home,” she said at a press conference. “I bought a home in Redfield, Iowa, and I was affecting that day. Around noon-ish, the movers had left, my son-in-law had left and my sister was end up up to help me pack.”
West and her sister took a break for lunch. Since West’s car was replete with moving supplies, the pair traveled in her sister’s truck to Casey’s Approximate Store, where they bought coffee, pizza and some raffle tickets. “I got my lottery tickets and we went back out to her truck,” said West. “I affable of just set those down at the foot in my purse — or so I thought — and didn’t about of them again until Sunday morning.”
On Sunday, a friend au fait West that the winning tickets had been sold in Iowa and New York. When she chattered to look for the tickets in her purse, they weren’t there. West ordered her sister, who found the tickets in her truck and sent her a picture of the numbers. She minuted the numbers into the Powerball website, where winning numbers pose up in red, and got a response of “red, red, red, red, red, red — jackpot.”
West says she told her sister, “Get that ticket, get in your ends and get up here now — and drive slow.'”
West grew up in a working class genus in Earlham, Iowa, which has a population of 1,450. Her father was a Vietnam warhorse and a welder and her mother was a stay-at-home mom.
“When I was 14, I started detasseling and down tool beans so that I could earn money to buy my school clothes and to aide with the family,” West said. “At the age of 17, I left high form. At the age of 19, I earned my GED. Soon after that, I started my family. I father three awesome, beautiful daughters. “
She supported her daughters as a single natural by working full time and going to school at night and on the weekend. When she had the dividend money, West would play the lottery. The most she had ever won, once upon a time, was $150.
At first, West’s daughters didn’t believe her, but now that the reality of her respectable fortune has sunk in, she and her family are determined to use the winnings responsibly. West had moulded for a health insurance company, but she retired after learning she’d won the lottery. She intends to buy herself a car to replace her Ford Fiesta, which has 142,000 miles on it.
She commands she’ll give to friends and family, and set money aside for her grandchildren to go to college. She has also formed The Callum Foundation, which is named after her late grandson who was tote prematurely. According to the organization’s website, The Callum Foundation provides consent ti to individuals and organizations in order to address issues such as “poverty and yen crave, education, animal welfare and veteran affairs.”
“I want you to know that as I be notable here today I know the responsibility that I have to do good with this on Easy Street,” she said, fighting back tears. “My life is changed forever.”
Identical to this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook!
Don’t miss: