After playing for years, a California woman hit the Mega Millions jackpot for $60 million.
Zorina Kroop, a California businesswoman who helped build up a thriving overnight janitorial service over the past 27 years, cleaned up somewhere new this week: the lottery.
The 63-year-old Sherman Oaks resident will be announced today by California Lottery officials as the winner of a $60-million Mega Millions jackpot.
Kroop found out that she was the big winner in the multi-state game late Wednesday when she dropped by the 7-Eleven store where for years she has bought lottery tickets twice a week. After scanning her ticket and learning she had won money, Kroop asked the store manager to verify her earnings. The answer came quickly: "He said, 'Sit down. You just won the Mega, $60 million.' And I said, 'You're joking!' "
"I was stunned," Kroop said. "I had to take a tranquilizer, because I was getting palpitations already, I was so excited."
When she woke up Thursday morning, Kroop said, her dog, a Chihuahua, "was sleeping next to me, and I looked at her and I said, 'Chaiya, we're millionaires!' "
Partly to settle her nerves, Kroop went grocery shopping with a cousin Thursday. And Kroop soon decided she could spend her money a little more freely than usual. "I said, 'You know what, I'm not getting the discount plastic bags.' "
Kroop plans to use some of her winnings to hire registered nurses to provide around-the-clock care for her elderly mother, who suffers from dementia and paralysis and is living in a convalescent home. She also plans to pay for her uncle and aunt to live in an assisted-living home.
In addition, Kroop said she will give money to charities that aid research into pediatric AIDS and pancreatic cancer, the disease that took her husband's life more than a quarter-century ago.
But the British-born Kroop, many of whose relatives fled the Nazis in Europe during World War II, also plans to enjoy her money, which she will take in a lump sum of slightly more than $30 million. "I'm going to party. I'm going to see my family in Israel, my family in New York, my family in London, and I'm going to the Greek isles, which has been a dream of mine," she said.
"I'm very, very grateful. This is a wonderful country. Money does grow on trees."
WOW~Great story!!
Absolutely awesome, good for her!!!! Huge congrats!!
Good for her. Congratulations Zorina!!!!
sniff,,this makes me happy
So, patience and tenacity pays off. Again, nothing ventured, nothing gained!
keep playing