Donna Osborne, 75, left, posing for a photo with PA Lottery Deputy Director of Corporate Sales Staci Coombs at Lottery Headquarters in Middletown, Pa.
A great-grandmother from Pennsylvania who recently completed radiation treatments for breast cancer won $5 million on a scratch-off state lottery ticket that she only bought because a scheduled family trip didn't go as planned.
Donna Osborne, 75, scored the big prize last month when she bought a $50 “Monopoly Own It All” ticket while buying gas at a convenience store in Lancaster County, where she lives. Osborne said she had previously bought a $5 lottery ticket that won her $50, so she used that money to get another ticket.
“I was at the airport with my daughter. We were on our way to see family in Florida when the flight got delayed. Well, it was delayed so many times, I decided to go home. My daughter stayed and flew to Florida,” Osborne said. “If I didn’t leave the airport, I would have never bought that ticket!”
Osborne said she scratched the ticket while she was in the store parking lot and was stunned when she realized she had won the game's top prize.
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“I could not believe my eyes!” Osborne said. “I went back into the store and said, 'Can you please check this? Is it right or wrong?’ Well, the clerk said, ‘It’s right!’”
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Osborne, who said she has been playing the lottery "since it began" about 50 years ago, called her daughter with the good news but "she didn’t believe me.”
Osborne, who has worked for decades providing transportation for Amish people, said she doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon. But she does have another trip in mind.
“I don’t know what I’d do with myself, I have to keep moving,” she said. "I think I’ll invest some of the prize, sure, but then go to Alaska,” she said.
