BOSTON -- A 67-year-old cleaning woman stepped forward Friday and claimed the $294 million Mega Millions jackpot, the second-largest jackpot ever to go to a single person in North America.
Geraldine Williams, of Lowell, appeared before the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission offices in Braintree, Mass., to claim her winnings.
"I am in disbelief. I can't believe it's me," Williams said. "I said 'Oh God, Oh God, let it be. Let it be.'"
Williams has cleaned homes since she retired from a custodian job at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. She is a mother of three and grandmother of eight.
She purchased the ticket at about noon at Powers Wine Co. on July 2. She requested five quick picks. The first quick pick had the winning numbers. The following morning, she woke up at 6 a.m. and looked at the winning numbers.
"I walked into the living room, and I was reading the numbers to my (boyfriend) and he said, 'Are you sure it's the right date?'" Williams said.
She called her children and said that she was 98 percent sure that she won the lottery.
The Massachusetts woman says she's going to take the prize in a lump-sum of $168 million before taxes -- or about $118 million after taxes.
"I'd like to travel. I never had the money to travel," Williams said. "I don't know what it is to have money. I don't know what I'd change, but I hope I stay the same."
"This is an historic day for the Massachusetts state lottery. It is the largest jackpot ever won in the state of Massachusetts," Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy Cahill said. "When I was asked about the odds, it was estimated at 1 in 135 million."
Originally from Pennsylvania, Williams comes from a family of nine. She is a former Marine, who recently retired from the University of Lowell, where she worked for 15 years.
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