Family birthdays trigger $1 million win!

Drawing Date: 5/19/2017

May 23, 2017 - Rose Ditano has a routine. The Penhook, Va., woman stops twice a week on her way to go grocery shopping to play Mega Millions. Her favorite store to buy a couple of tickets is Whistle Stop, 11729 Old Franklin Turnpike in Union Hall.

That routine was disrupted when she and her husband Roland checked the winning numbers in the May 19 drawing. He read off the numbers printed in the newspaper while she looked at her ticket.

“Each time he read a number I said, ‘Yeah,’” she recalled. “By the time we got to the fifth number we were kind of in shock.”

The ticket matched the first five numbers, missing only the Mega Ball number, to win the $1 million prize. On May 23, she returned to the store to receive the check from the Virginia Lottery. The store received a $10,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

The winning numbers were 1-4-5-24-30, and the Mega Ball number was 1. She selected her numbers using family birthdays. If her ticket had matched all six numbers, she would have won a jackpot estimated at $43 million.

Ms. Ditano, who is retired, said she has no immediate plans for her winnings except to pay off the mortgage. “I’m not the type who goes nuts,” she said.