After Mother's Day Dinner, She Got the $1 'Gift of a Lifetime'

A post-dinner stop at a North Carolina supermarket and a $1 Mother's Day gift from her sister paid off big for an Autryville woman. The News & Observer reports on a giant lottery win for Vielka Roman, who on Sunday won the third-largest Carolina Cash 5 haul ever: $1.35 million, or about $960,000 after taxes. A release from the NC Education Lottery notes Roman, her fiance, and her sister Neris had all gone out to eat for Mother's Day, and on the way home, they pulled into Carlie C's IGA. "Carolina Cash 5 is her favorite game, so I bought her the lucky ticket as a Mother's Day present," Neris says.

The next day, Roman and her fiance were driving to a getaway in the mountains when he checked her ticket's numbers against the winning ones on his phone—and discovered she'd won the "gift of a lifetime," per the lottery. Roman put on the brakes, did a 180, and went straight to her sister's house to pick her up and head to lottery headquarters to claim her winnings. Roman is going to use her new windfall to pay off the house she and her fiance just purchased, pay off her car loan, and, of course, help Neris. "Neris can have more time to plant in her garden," Roman says. "We will be able to spend more time with each other as a family." (More Mother's Day stories.)