Nurse working in COVID unit wins big in NC lottery — but doesn’t believe it at first

A North Carolina nurse who works on a coronavirus unit hit the jackpot — but she wasn’t convinced at first.

Terri Watkins, a Durham resident, told the N.C. Education Lottery she was skeptical when she got a call telling her she scored $1 million in a second-chance drawing.

“I thought that it was not real, couldn’t be real,” Watkins said in a news release published Monday. “It’s still something that I really don’t believe, I’m still in some shock here.”

Watkins’ windfall was the real deal, and it started with her decision to play the $300 million Supreme Riches scratch-off game. Officials say she put her lucky ticket in a second-chance drawing, where it was picked from more than 513,000 entries.

“I’m a nurse and I work in the COVID unit at a long-term care facility,” Watkins told the N.C. Education Lottery. “Just seeing some of the things that I’ve had to see, I am very thankful. I had been praying for something to help me with this situation. It really is a great thing. I’m very blessed.”

She chose to get her prize money in a lump sum and kept $424,500 after taxes, officials say.

“I’m just gonna take it slow and easy and figure out what I’m gonna do,” Watkins said in the lottery’s news release. “I would love a new home, but I’ve just got to take time.”

It’s not the first time someone working at a long-term care center scored a big prize in North Carolina.

In December, a nursing home cook from Pitt County bought a lottery ticket worth $250,000, McClatchy News reported.

This story was originally published January 11, 2021 at 11:37 AM with the headline "Nurse working in COVID unit wins big in NC lottery — but doesn’t believe it at first."

Simone Jasper

The News & Observer

919-836-5768

Simone Jasper is a service journalism reporter at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.