Silver Spring Nurse Charts First Big Powerball Win

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SILVER SPRING, MD —A lucky Silver Spring nurse is still in shock after winning a $50,000 Powerball prize in the historic Jan. 13 Powerball drawing. Like millions of other Americans, the occasional player decided to buy a ticket in hopes of winning the record $1.6 billion jackpot.

While going home, the 63-year-old stopped and bought a $10 ticket at Hillandale Beer & Wine, 10117 New Hampshire Ave. in Silver Spring. She chose her numbers using the birth dates of her late mother and her son. After buying her ticket, the Montgomery County woman completely forgot about it. Only when she heard someone talking about the Power Ball number being 10 for the big drawing did she remember she had selected that number on her ticket.

The woman went online to mdlottery.com to check the winning numbers and discovered her ticket was worth $50,000.

“I was in a tizzy,” she told Maryland Lottery officials. “I didn’t want to tell anyone.”

She did call her son and a good friend of hers to share the great news. The winning ticket remained in her wallet until she claimed her prize at Lottery headquarters. The happy winner has worked as a nurse for 27 years and plans to use her prize for retirement.

This lucky player bought one of the 24 $50,000 winning tickets sold in Maryland for the Jan. 13 drawing. The state also saw three $1 million winning tickets sold and one $100,000 ticket.