Life can be a challenge, as we all know. And balancing a budget on a small, fixed income in never easy–as Sue Hockenbury of Washington, Illinois can attest.

Hockenbury, 66, has been living on modest, monthly social security benefits over the last two years. Thankfully, she has four children living in the area who freely contribute to their mom’s income when unexpected expenses arise.

Now, thanks to winning a $500 A Week for Life Lottery prize, Hockenbury will be in a position to return the favor to her loving and supportive children and their families.

“The good Lord has been looking after me for many years—and still is,” said Hockenbury, who retired two years ago. An occasional Lottery player, Hockenbury said the most she ever won prior to the “Cash For Life” prize was $10. “I’m still having a hard time believing I won a prize like this,” she said. She is the third Peoria-area resident to date to claim a top prize in one of the Lottery’s “Cash For Life” instant games.

Hockenbury bought her winning ticket the Friday before New Year’s Eve. She wasn’t planning to buy a Lottery ticket. But, after finding a $1 bill in her pocket, she pointed to the $1 Cash For Life ticket and said, “give me one of those.”  It turned out to be one of the best decisions of her life.

After returning home she sat down with a cup of re-warmed coffee and played the scratch game. “I kept saying to myself, ‘this can’t be right….But it was!” To confirm the win, Hockenbury took a short drive to her daughter Dawn’s home. When she walked in,

Dawn and her husband, Paul, realized something was not quite normal with their mom/mother-in-law. “They kept asking me: are you sick; did you fall down; did you have an accident,” said Hockenbury. “’No,’ I said, ‘I won the Lottery!’”

When asked what she might do to treat herself, Hockenbury says it’s too soon to tell, but a new car may be in her future. “I’m just going to bide my time for now,” she said.

There was one winning ticket.

I’ll let you know where (and in what country) that winning ticket was bought as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, congratulations to the winner.

Judy and Frank Whitmore were one of the 25 ticket-holders who each banked £1 million on the amazing night. The draw was the finale of Millionaires Month, which saw the EuroMillions UK Millionaire Raffle create 50 millionaires in the UK between 25 November and Christmas.

Judy only bought the ticket because the draw was creating so many winners, and discovered the win on Christmas Eve. She said, “I got the laptop out and hadn’t won with my numbers so then looked through the 25 raffle numbers. I checked it six times and my husband and I kept reading them out to one another. In the end we decided we had better call my son to check.”

Judy’s son, who lives down the road, appeared in an instant, and eventually confirmed: “Yes Mother you have won it”.

“We screamed a bit,” Judy said, “and then my son had to call” to confirm the win.

Rather than rushing out for last-minute Christmas shopping, the couple decided it was best to go for a walk. “We just wandered down the river with great big smiles on our faces and occasionally laughing,” she said.

Judy was worried about where to keep the ticket now that it was worth £1 million. “My tickets are usually just in my purse or on the window sill,” she said. After a few ideas my husband suggested we put it in a special teapot we have on the kitchen shelf, it was his great-great-grandmother’s. We were sure it would be safe there.”

The couple didn’t reveal the win to their two other children until they visited on Christmas Day. After the initial shock, both were over the moon for the couple.

Felice anno nuovo

Bonne annee

Ein gutes neues Jahr

Xin nian yu kuai

To you all..a most happy, healthy and wealthy New Year.

Rhoades matched all five numbers in the Dec. 7 drawing to win the jackpot. He learned of his win when he stopped at a local convenience store to have his tickets scanned.

“I play Mega Millions and Powerball every week,” Rhoades said. “I only play Cash 5 when it gets to be over a hundred thousand. I knew I had won but didn’t know how much until they scanned it. Felt pretty good.”

After taxes, Rhoades collected a check for $180,858.

“We live pretty good,” he said. “But I know we can use this money to make things easier later on.”

You betcha.

Congratulations. And Merry Christmas.

The last draw had no winners so the jackpot rises to 42 million euros, or 36 million U.K. pounds, or $56 million U.S. dollars.

The latest winning numbers are 28,31,48,56,72,78. The Jolly number is 65. The Superstar number is 34.

For those of you who have never played, here is how:

There are several ways to play the game  but the simplest way is to select 6 numbers from the range 1 to 90 for each entry that you want to make.

When the draw takes place at 8pm on Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, six main numbers and one ‘Jolly’ number will be selected at random by the SuperEnalotto machine.

The Jolly number is very similar to the Bonus Ball that is drawn in the UK Lotto game and also to the Lucky Star numbers that are drawn in the EuroMillions game, and the purpose of the Jolly number is to help players win a bigger consolation prize if the jackpot eludes them.

If no player wins the jackpot then it is rolled over to the jackpot fund for the next SuperEnalotto draw. As mentioned previously, the slim odds of winning the top prize (due to the fact that there are 90 balls in play) mean that rollovers occur regularly.

Get it?

I’ve played the game.

Bernard Robison, Jr. is no stranger to the Maryland Lottery winners lounge.

In 2008, Robison won a second-chance Dubble Bubble “Dream Day at the Park” prize, which provided him the opportunity to play baseball with Baltimore Orioles alumni.

Recemtly, the Proctor & Gamble retiree strolled into Lottery Headquarters again.

This time, he was cashing a $50,000 Bonus Match 5 top-tier winning ticket.

He entered with a smile on his face and confidence by his side. “Every time I play, I know I am going to win,” said Bernard.  “There is no point in playing if you suspect you may lose.”

Robison, a Harford County, Maryland resident of over 40 years, plays Bonus Match 5often, and says that he always uses the same numbers, which are a combination of important dates and birthdays.

He explained how he first saw his winning numbers on television, and then called the winning numbers line to verify his win. He also described his feeling after he won as “natural.”

This calm, cool, and collected winner has two grown children; a son and a daughter.  At the time of speaking with the Lottery, he had not yet told his children of his win. “My daughter had surgery yesterday and I plan on going to visit her right after I leave here to tell her the news,” the excited winner stated.  Robison said that he will be giving his children some of his winnings, and may also buy a new car.

“I don’t need much to make me happy,” he explained.

Have you heard about the atheist who became a believer after his mother won a $1 million lottery prize?

Yup. According to the Christian Post, that’s exactly what happened to a self-confessed atheist who became a believer after mocking God by sarcastically praying for his mother to win the lottery.

Sal Bentivegna, 28, who did not previously believe in God, he said, had sarcastically asked his mother to “ask your God for a million dollars”.

From the Post: “However, his mother Gloria Bentivegna, follows the Catholic faith, and staying true to her belief refused to ask God for such a thing. Taking his joke further, Sal then prayed out aloud saying, “God, I don’t know if you’re real or not, but if you are there, please let my mother win a million dollars.”

He added, “If Jesus wants me to believe in him, that’s what he’ll do”.

The following day his mother bought a “Lotto Tree” of unscratched instant win tickets from her Church’s charity auction. Sal was then left absolutely stunned when he found out his mother had won a million.

By winning New York’s Sweet Million game, Gloria Bentivegna will now receive $50,000 every year for the next 20 years.