A PA Lottery winner received a commemorative check after winning $1 million in a Scratch-Off game recently, but called the win “bittersweet.”
61-year-old Karen Coffman of Armstrong County won after buying a “$1,000,000 Game” ticket at the BP in Freeport on Buffalo Street.
The big surprise came just two weeks before she lost her husband.
“My husband had a brain tumor and died two weeks after I won,” said Coffman. “I kept telling him, ‘One of these days I’m going to hit the million!’ When I told him about this prize, he thought I was lying to him.”
Speaking at the BP location where she bought and scratched the ticket, Coffman said she didn’t believe it when she first saw it.
“I thought, ‘This can’t be right!’ The guy working there said, ‘What’s wrong?’ I said, ‘Look!’ He starts counting the zeroes and we then just started jumping up and down, hugging. When I got home, I was shaking,” said Coffman.
She worked as a chef at a nursing home, but recently retired. She is thinking about moving to Florida to be closer to her family and avoid the winter snow.
It isn't her first big win either. Coffman won $65,000 on a scratch-off ticket about 15 years ago.
The “$1,000,000 Game” sent on sale in late 2022 and offers a top prize of $1 million.