Massachusetts Lottery: Massachusetts woman scratches a $4 million lottery winA Warrendale, Massachusetts woman who bought a winning scratch ticket at a Main Street convenience store this week says the $4 million prize will not completely transform her life.
"It's just like having a good paying job," said Deborah A. Basile, 50, who works as an administrative assistant at Andrews Pharmacy in Wellesley and runs her own transcription business.
"If we won this 10 years ago, it would be different."
After turning in the $4 million ticket to Mass State Lottery headquarters in Braintree, Basile and her husband, Frank, took home the first of their 20 annual payments, which was worth $140,000 after taxes.
The Basiles, who married last year and live together in a modest house on Longfellow Road, will entertain some indulgences.
"I'm going to buy my husband a new Caddy," Basile said. While she plans to continue working, she said, Frank, a 68-year-old salesman, will be able to retire.
"It's a blessing," she said.
Basile said that she has yet to buy anything out of the ordinary, but her children have. Her 20-year-old daughter, a third-year college student, was in Newport yesterday on a shopping spree, and her 19-year-old son, an apprentice plumber, bought a Sony Play Station.
It all started Tuesday, when Basile stopped her Mercury Grand Marquis at the Quick Stop Variety store across from City Hall.
Basile said she "always had a premonition" she would win the $4 million prize on the $640,000,000 Jubilee game -- until she read that only one of the 10 jackpots remained, and that the odds of hitting it were one in eight million.
She bought the ticket anyway, which was number 99, the last in the book. Sitting in her car outside the store, she scratched the ticket to reveal the two number 11's, which made her a winner, then uncovered the $4 million prize amount.
She immediately pulled out her cell phone and dialed her husband, telling him he could retire.
"I was in disbelief," she said.
Quick Stop will get 1 percent of the winnings, or $40,000. According to Quick Stop employee Ly Nguyen, whose brother owns the store, Quick Stop has never sold a ticket worth more than $20,000. Asked if the store, which has posted a copy of the winning ticket on the front door, will sell more tickets now, Nguyen said, "I think so."
Basile went to work yesterday as usual, where she was greeted with a banner that read, "Congratulations to Debbie, our new best friend."
The couple had already planned to buy a condo in Florida in the near future and go on a European vacation in two weeks. Those plans will not change, but more traveling will be in their future now, Basile said.
"Our lifestyle at this point is not going to be altered that much," she said.
Originally from Shrewsbury, Basile, formerly Deborah Zadrozny, has been active in Waltham civics. She helped raise money for Waltham Hospital and supported former Mayor William Stanley's campaign.
