A Cheque for Dad
Last Updated: Wednesday 7th August 2013, 13:24
When most of us dream of winning a lottery jackpot, we usually think about investing in fine art, buying a wardrobe full of designer clothes and taking first class trips around the world. But 54 year old Della Nelson plans to do something much more practical with her new lump sum of $6.1 million… she and her husband intend to build a new home, buy themselves a new car and pay the bills!
Della is one of the most recent winners of the Florida Lotto, and although she will have to pay taxes on her $6.1 million jackpot under US law, she will still have more than enough left over to keep her smiling. “I almost had a heart attack,” she said. “I had just got home from the hospital and thought I was going to have to go back.”
A surprise it might have been, but Della seemed to have a sixth sense of a future win some years ago when she wrote her father a cheque for a million dollars just in case she was ever lucky enough to win a lottery jackpot. Now that this has happened, she says that she intends to honour that cheque. “God blessed us with this money for a reason,” she said in a statement released by officials.
The winning ticket was purchased by Della from a convenience store in Titusville, and the store itself receives its own windfall of $20,000 for being lucky enough to sell it. In addition, they’ll benefit from a rush of local players who are no doubt hoping that lucky lightning will be able to strike the same place twice.