A woman in western Pennsylvania experienced joy and tragedy all in a short period of time, as her husband passed away just two weeks after she won a $1 million lottery prize.
Karen Coffman from Freeport, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, won a $1 million prize from a scratch-off ticket that she bought at a neary BP gas station in March.
This week, people went to the gas station to celebrate her victory, but it was a bittersweet moment for Coffman.
Only two weeks after she found out she won that large amount of money, her husband, Rob, died from a brain tumor. Coffman told media outlets that as her husband was passing, he was worried she wouldn’t be able to be taken care of when he was gone.
As she said:
“Throughout the years, I kept telling him, ‘You watch, one of these days, I am going to hit the million.’
“You watch and see, and he would just laugh at me and say, ‘Yeah, right.’ And I was like, ‘Come on, with my luck. You know I am going to hit.’ And then whenever I hit, I said to him, I said, ‘Rob, you can go ahead and go. You don’t have to worry. I’ll be OK.’”
The $1 million winning ticket isn’t the first time she won the lottery. Just a few weeks before that amazing March day, she won $500 on another scratch-off ticket. And 14 years before that, she actually won $65,000 from a scratch-off ticket as well.
All of those tickets were purchased at the same BP gas station.
Coffman said that she is grateful for the big windfall of money that she got from the lottery win. She added that she believes her husband played a part in her winning the lottery before he passed away.
The couple knew that Rob was dying before he passed. And even though he didn’t get to enjoy all of the winnings from his wife’s last win, Coffman said she hopes he’s able to see her now.
At an event held recently at the BP gas station with lottery officials, the 61-year-old Coffman said about her husband:
“I do think he had something in the works because he was worried. I hope he’s looking down on this.”
She told media outlets that she plans to move to Florida and invest a large majority of her winnings wisely so that she can continue to help other members of her family. She also has plans to take a trip to Disney with her immediate relatives.
As she said of her planned move:
“I don’t want winter no more. I hate the cold.”
Florida will be a great place to avoid the cold, of course, and it’ll also be a much friendlier place to Coffman from a tax perspective.
Before he passed earlier this year, Karen and Rob were married for 31 years.
