Most people would have gotten impatient, upset, maybe even angry. Not Marilyn Looney. When the 82-year-old Long Island grandmother’s hair dresser was running late for her appointment, she shrugged it off and went to the convenience store next door — a million-dollar decision, as it turns out. The scratch-off ticket she bought while there turned out to be a $7 million winner.
According to the local CBS affiliate, it was the store owner who informed Looney of the news.
“He read it and he came jumping over and said, ‘My God, lady, you’re a millionaire. You’ve just won $7 million,'” Looney said. “I grabbed my cellphone, called my daughter and said, ‘Get down here, we just won $7 million.’”
She wasn’t just paying lip service to her daughter either. Looney and her daughter, Carol Prevete, have split lottery winnings for as long as they can remember. Looney wasn’t about to get greedy now.
They decided to receive their winnings in a lump sum, which worked out to about $2.3 million each after taxes. Looney has said that she’s not entirely sure what she’ll do with all of it, but the New York Post reported that she plans on buying a home and taking a trip to Disney World.
Prevete is looking more towards the future. She plans to put a lot of the money away for her four children’s college funds — a sound investment that will surely pay dividends, considering the U.S. is $1.3 trillion in student loan debt currently, a rise from $1.21 trillion last year.
One thing’s for sure though, even this big win couldn’t quench Looney’s insatiable appetite for playing the lotto. In fact, she’s already won over $100 more since hitting it big.
“I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, so I like the New York state lottery,” she said.
