Marital Spat leads to Winning the Lottery for $1 Million

Wife eats words, admits to husband it’s not a waste of money after winning the lottery for $1 million.

All over the world, lotteries are held to raise money for charitable organizations and government coffers. Millions of people play, while just as many scoff at the idea, deeming it a waste of money. Buddy Blackwell of North Carolina, USA is an avid player, while his wife Glenda is—or rather, was—among the latter.

For years, like so many of the world’s working-class population, the couple struggled to make ends meet. And for most of those years, Glenda berated her husband for purchasing lottery tickets. Despite regular arguments over the matter, Mr. Blackwell bought scratch-off tickets regularly, and made sure to purchase at least one Powerball ticket for each drawing, held twice weekly.

Their disagreement over the possibilities of winning the lottery came to a head on one ominously cloud-covered afternoon. On Saturday, October 22, 2016, Mrs. Blackwell was heading out to the store to do some shopping. Buddy, ever confident in his ability to win, made a simple request. He asked his wife to purchase two Powerball tickets for that night’s drawing.

Just To Prove Her Point…

Glenda was at her wits end by that point. She decided to prove her point that lottery tickets were nothing but a waste of money to her frivolous husband. The way she went about it is somewhat confusing, but in her mind, it made perfect sense.

Instead of buying the two Powerball tickets her husband had requested, Mrs. Blackwell instead purchased a $10 Carolina Million scratch-off ticket. The idea, as expressed by Glenda to the media a few days later, was to show Buddy that lottery tickets—no matter the variety—simply did not win.

Boy was she wrong…

Winning the Lottery – Lesson Learned

When Mrs. Blackwell scratched off the lottery ticket in front of her husband, adamant that it was a waste of $10 and would inevitably end up in the trash, the unthinkable occurred. She hadn’t just purchased a winning lottery ticket. She’d won the largest possible prize of $1 million.

Glenda explained the situation to prize claim organizers in Raleigh, NC on the following Monday morning. “I was going to be ugly and buy a scratch off to show him they didn’t hit,” she said. “Sometimes I get aggravated with him, so I tell him, ‘You’re just wasting your money.’”

Conversely, Mrs. Blackwell had to admit she ended up teaching herself a lesson. “I had to eat my words, but they were worth eating,” she quipped during her obligatory winner’s interview. “So, I was very happy.”

Winning the lottery changed the couple’s lives forever. “We’ve struggled a lot, so now we can buy our own home and our own land. It’ll be paid for and I don’t have to worry about that no more,” she said.

With the rest of the money, she said “I plan to help my daughter and to put money up for my two granddaughters for college.”

Perhaps a lesson did come from winning the lottery, though. Both Mr. and Mrs. Blackwell—now very comfortable financially—agreed they won’t be spending nearly so much money on scratch-off tickets anymore.

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