Widow Wins $10M on Ticket Bought by Late Husband

One of Donald Peters' final acts has resulted in a lasting legacy of financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.

On Nov. 1, Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets at a local 7-Eleven store as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife, Charlotte. Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his Danbury yard.

On Friday, his widow cashed in one of the tickets: a $10 million winner which, in her grief over her husband's death, she had put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers.

"I'm numb," Charlotte Peters, 78, said Friday at Connecticut Lottery headquarters in Rocky Hill. "I'm still numb."

Donald Peters had been purchasing lottery tickets for himself and his wife for two decades, picking his own numbers and making sure to sprinkle lots of odd numbers in Charlotte's as she liked.

He usually bought them for 10 weeks at a stretch, so the winning ticket he bought Nov. 1 for the Dec. 2 drawing was among several that Charlotte Peters put aside as she and her three children and two grandchildren coped with his sudden death.

In fact, she said she almost tossed the winning ticket in the trash.

"I was in the grocery store and I had it checked and they told me I was a winner," she said. "I had no idea how much it was."

She said more surprises came when she claimed her winnings Friday. Originally thinking she'd won $6 million, she was surprised to learn from lottery officials she'd won $10 million.

True to his wife's wishes, Donald Peters had picked a ticket in which five of the six numbers were odd: 02-07-09-11-27-33.

Charlotte Peters has 60 days to decide whether to take a $6 million pre-tax lump sum payment or stretch the winnings into 21 yearly payments of almost $477,300 each.

She does not yet know what she will do with the money, and plans to consult an accountant and lawyer.

"I've always wanted a Corvette, but I don't think I'll buy one," she said. "I'll stick to a small car. I might go to Mohegan Sun (casino). I'm going to go home and sit and think."

The bittersweet timing has given a chuckle to those who loved Donald Peters and think he would have enjoyed the irony.

"We definitely made jokes about that," said Brian Peters, one of the couple's three children. "He'd be very mad, he just passed away and she won a lot of money. He'd say, 'Figures!"'