A Michigan man went to Mississippi for a friend's funeral last week, and came back a multimillionaire.
Tyler Morris, 73, drove with his wife to attend the funeral of his longtime friend Max Anderson, 86, on Feb. 15, and stopped by one of Anderson's favorite hangouts afterward: The Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi, Miss. He decided to play penny slots in honor of Anderson, who had often gone with Morris to the casino over the years, and always played the slots.
Morris put his money on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship, a game with a maximum bet of $3.50, and ended up winning $7,217,175.15.
"I was shooting craps at first, and I felt like somebody was watching me," Morris told TODAY.com. "I looked over my shoulder and zeroed in on that penny slot machine because my friend always played it. Then I won $7 million. As I was playing, I thought I was getting the message from my friend."
Morris and his wife, Mary, were very close with Anderson, and traditionally traveled to New Orleans with him in February to celebrate Mardi Gras. But Anderson was too sick to make the trip this year, and passed away on Feb. 7. Morris, who had known Anderson for more than four decades, was one of three people selected to give a eulogy at his funeral. The two men had been part of the same social club in Michigan for a time, and owned shares in a hunting cabin together.
"I was just kind of stunned when I won," Morris said of his good luck at the slot machines. "It felt like somebody was watching me when nobody was. Everybody down there was really happy that I won. They wanted to have their picture taken with me or touch me and have the luck rub off on them."
When Mary initially couldn't find her husband at the craps table, she called him on his cell phone and he informed her that he was just collecting a jackpot he won on the slots. She soon saw a crowd around the Lord of the Rings machine.
"I kind of tried to get closer and a lady grabbed a hold of me and said, 'That man just won seven million dollars,"' Mary told Savannah Guthrie on TODAY Thursday. "I said, 'Oh my goodness."'
Morris, who has three sons, said some money will be used to pay off the new car he and his wife recently purchased, after racking up over 200,000 miles on their previous car, and a large portion will be put away in a college fund for his grandchildren. He plans to continue working at Montague Metal Products Inc., the small manufacturing company he owns with his wife that sells aluminum items like flagpole eagles and weather vanes.
"We were struggling a little bit through the recession, but we're hanging in there," Morris said. "This should help."
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Now thats what l call paying your respects and your respects paying off.- Way to Go Tyler.
RIP Max.
Thats what I call "A winning play"
I never met or knew Max but I may pick up some lottery tickets this weekend to show my respect.
Proof positive, Karma always finds it's way back....
Congratulations on the big win to Tlyer and his family.. RIP Max..!
Great story
He must love his job if he wants to keep working at 73.
God bless him and his wife.
I have a lot of respect for the departed. As Catholics we call them Saints. You can always call on them. The Chinese, with their thousands year of history, has ancestor worship. I believe in that too. I believe they are in a place where they are watching over us.
Some scientists believe in a parallel universe. They say nothing in this world is actually destroyed but actually just moves in and out of a parallel universe.
WOW!!! Congratulations Mr. Morris
. Lord of the Rings trilogy is one of my favorite books/ movies of all times.
RIP Mr. Max Anderson
Good story and sounds like he had a good friend
I agree, and since I live in Michigan.....
Awesome story, Congrats.
Classic lotto has gone on long enough we must take it down this saturday in honor of Max
I agree. Parallel Universe reminds me of the dragonfly story.
The
Dragonfly
Once, in a little pond, in the muddy water under
the lily pads,
there lived a little water beetle in a community of
water
beetles. They lived a simple and comfortable life in the pond
with
few disturbances and interruptions.
Once in a while, sadness would come to the community when one of
their fellow beetles would climb the stem of a
lily pad and
would never be seen again. They knew when this happened;
their
friend was dead, gone forever.
Then, one day, one little water
beetle felt an irresistible urge
to climb up that stem. However, he was
determined that he would
not leave forever. He would come back and tell his
friends what
he had found at the top.
When he reached the top and
climbed out of the water onto the
surface of the lily pad, he was so tired,
and the sun felt so
warm, that he decided he must take a nap. As he slept,
his body
changed and when he woke up, he had turned into a
beautiful
blue-tailed dragonfly with broad wings and a slender
body
designed for flying.
So, fly he did! And, as he soared he saw
the beauty of a whole
new world and a far superior way of life to what he had
never
known existed.
Then he remembered his beetle friends and how
they were thinking
by now he was dead. He wanted to go back to tell them,
and
explain to them that he was now more alive than he had ever
been
before. His life had been fulfilled rather than ended.
But, his
new body would not go down into the water. He could
not get back to tell his
friends the good news. Then he
understood that their time would come, when
they, too, would
know what he now knew. So, he raised his wings and flew
off
into his joyous new life!
~Author Unknown~