News writer; Opinion columnist
The two words you never want to hear together: you're fired. The two words you always want to hear together: You won.
There are few events as traumatic as an unexpected job loss. One moment your future seems secure, the next you're wondering how you'll pay your bills or make your car payment. While most people in this situation will brush up their resumes and reach out to friends on LinkedIn, a lucky few turn their unemployment into a permanent vacation by winning a lottery jackpot.
These are true stories of people who were laid off before they got paid off with big lottery wins.
From shutdown to jackpot
With government shutdowns becoming increasingly frequent, it's easy to lose sight of the people who lose their paychecks when the government can't pay its bills.
Judith Smith loved her job as a National Park Service employee at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, New York. When the federal government shut down in December 2018, Smith was placed on furlough, meaning she wouldn't receive a paycheck until the government reopened.
Perhaps thinking ahead, she purchased a New Jersey Pick 6 ticket for the December 17, 2018, drawing at Eddy's Wine and Liquors in Bayonne, New Jersey, just days before the shutdown went into effect.
Following the drawing, Judith gave the ticket to her son, William Smith, to verify if it was a winner at their local liquor store. As soon as William scanned it on the store's ticket checker, he knew something was up. He told reporters:
When I read it the first time, you know, and then you're like, wait a minute, this can't be, though. It said file a claim, please see the clerk, and I knew right away, it was something more than $500.
It turns out that Judith's ticket was worth $29.5 million, the largest Pick 6 jackpot in the last 15 years, which came to just over $14 million after paying taxes.
The win couldn't have come soon enough for the Smith family, which admitted it had been struggling even before the shutdown hit.
William, who is unemployed, explained to the reporters:
My dad died two years ago. My mom's boyfriend's mother passed away in November, and her boyfriend actually died of a massive heart attack three weeks to the day in November.
However, now that their financial worries were behind them, William shared how they planned to spend their new fortune.
“We'll continue to work, you know, set stuff up for the kids, go to college, and travel,” he said.
Finally, in first class
It felt like the hits just kept on coming for the Adams family of Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, UK. In 2020, David Adams lost his job as a wood machinist, and just the year before, Shelly, his wife, was diagnosed with a serious illness.
Speaking with reporters, David stated:
Many people would think the redundancy was the worst news, but in fact, it's just the final straw in a catalogue of difficulties we have experienced. Just last year, Shelley was diagnosed with MS (multiple sclerosis) and had to give up the job she loved as a community carer, putting a strain on our finances and heightening her clinical anxiety.
And all of that still wasn't the end of their personal tragedies. In April of 2020, David's brother died from complications related to the coronavirus, and his sister-in-law died of a heart attack.
"It's been a really tough time, but we stick together and try to keep smiling, whatever life has thrown at us," Mr. Adams said.
However, as they say, it's always darkest before the dawn, and after an unrelenting streak of bad news, the Adams finally score a real win. They bought a National Lottery ticket and won a seven-figure prize.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we think the next thing thrown our way would be £1m." The Adamses finally had a reason to smile, and David shared some of the ways they planned to enjoy their new fortune, including buying a new Nissan SUV to replace his aging Ford Mondeo.
However, he said what they looked forward to most was reconnecting with family who lived overseas:
We have friends and family in Canada who we thought we would only ever see online, certainly never in person. I've never even been on a plane or left the country before. It's crazy to think the first time I do it will be first class all the way!
Sick of it
The COVID-19 pandemic was a tough time for everyone. From people getting sick to businesses shutting down.
One New Zealand man, who chose to remain anonymous, told reporters:
I lost my job at the beginning of the lockdown, so we've been really worried about our future, particularly the impact it would have on our retirement and our children's education.
The man's wife, a healthcare worker who continued to work throughout the quarantine, came home one day for lunch to find her husband sitting at the kitchen table with an odd look on his face. She recalled for the reporters:
There was an envelope waiting for me in my spot... it was a bit awkward, he told me to open the envelope — inside was a newspaper clipping of an article saying someone from Hamilton had won $10.3 million. I said, 'Why are you showing me this?' He replied with, 'It's us, we are the winners.' I thought he was joking.
Their win was no joke. Just days after losing his job due to the pandemic, her husband had won a lottery jackpot worth $6.3 million USD.
I'll never forget that moment — it felt too good to be true. It was very emotional.
The man said that he almost never learned about his win because he assumed that the email he received from MyLotto customer support was just another piece of spam. However, something told him to open it, and that's when he learned he was a multi-million dollar winner.
"My wife was at work, so I asked someone else in our bubble to check it for me to make sure I wasn't seeing things," he added. "They confirmed: 'Yep, that definitely says you've won $10 million.'”
That's when he decided to add a little levity to the situation by clipping out the article and surprising his wife with it.
"I wasn't sure how she would react — I cut out the article and popped it in an envelope for her. It was nerve-wracking watching her open it," he said.
While the pair said they plan to cover some basic expenses with the money, including repairing their car and paying for their children's university education, they also said they hoped to stay as normal as possible despite their new fortune.
"We feel incredibly lucky and want to set ourselves up for the future, but also look at how we can help others," his wife said. "We're still in shock; these types of things don't happen to people like us."
Christmas miracle
There's never a good time to lose your job, but getting fired right before the holidays has to be one of the worst. It's hard to enjoy presents and Yuletide cheer when you don't know how you'll pay your rent.
This was the nightmare scenario faced by Michigan resident Michelle Sanders, who was fired from her job as a clerk at the register of deeds office in Montgomery, MI. She stated to reporters:
I think I cried a lot. I cried for weeks. Everybody would get up to go to school or work, and I'm like, 'What am I going to do?' You can only clean so much, and you can't really afford to go see anybody or do anything if you don't have a check coming in.
A few weeks after getting a pink slip, Sanders decided to buy a lottery ticket, but it wasn't a winner. However, she was persistent and entered her loser into a second-chance drawing.
You can't win if you don't do it. So I was feeling lucky, and even though they were losing tickets, I was having a really good day.
Her good day turned into a great one when she learned that her second-chance entry won her the opportunity to play the Michigan Lottery's Big Spin game, where she would have a chance to win up to one million dollars by spinning a giant prize wheel.
It was finally her turn to take a spin on January 30, 2020, and she said her legs were shaking as she approached the wheel. But she gave it a heave and ended up winning $250,000.
Sanders shared her big plans for spending her new fortune, including paying for her upcoming wedding, putting money towards her son's college fund, and taking a cruise with her family.
Dream come true
If losing your job is a nightmare, and winning the lottery is a dream, what happens when you combine those two things?
A Union County, New Jersey, man, who chose to remain anonymous, was dealing with an unexpected job loss when he had a dream that told him he should buy a lottery ticket.
“I've always been told that if I've had a dream, and if it's a good dream, I should play," he told state lottery officials. He followed through on his premonition and purchased a Jersey Cash 5 ticket from the EZ Check Food store in Rahway, New Jersey.
He watched as one of his numbers after another was selected during the drawing until he saw that he had correctly picked all five: 14, 20, 29, 30, and 45. His dream ticket cashed in for $1.5 million:
This one, I can't even explain. I didn't even pick my numbers. It's so crazy. Let me tell you: God answers your prayers.
While the man didn't have immediate plans for how to spend his money, he knew it would help keep him afloat while looking for work. “I've been job hunting. Of course, this money will be spent wisely.”
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