The Hindu : International : Cleaner wins $294 millions

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 11, 2004

International

International

Cleaner wins $294 millions

New York: Geraldine Williams, a retired cleaner from Massachusetts, stopped off at the shopping mall on Friday to get a new outfit before she announced to the world that she had just won more than quarter of a billion dollars on the lottery. ``I'm in disbelief. I can't believe it's me,'' she said. The 68-year-old grandmother of eight found out that she had cleaned up last week, winning $294 millions, the second largest single ticket win in the U.S. A few days later she fully intended to keep an appointment to clean a client's house but reluctantly cancelled when she was told she had to meet financial advisers in Boston. Later she bought two cheap vases at a yard sale. ``That's the kind of person she is,'' Barry Scanlon, whose father Thomas is Ms Williams' long-time companion, told the Lowell Sun. ``She is a wonderful person,'' Mary Recko, a former colleague at the college, said. Ms. Williams, who bought the ticket at an off-licence outlet, was given the choice between receiving the full amount over 26 years or a lump sum of $168 millions. She chose the lump sum. The biggest single lottery winner in the world was Jack Whittaker, of West Virginia, who won $314.9 millions in December 2002. He had bought 100 tickets for the lottery draw. —

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Cleaner wins $294 millions