Wife thinks she’s dreaming when husband wakes her up to share his Michigan lottery win

Mark Watson said he was “stunned” when he won the top prize while playing the Michigan Lottery’s Lucky For Life game.

He just had to tell his spouse.

“I woke my wife up to tell her the good news and she thought she was dreaming,” the 77-year-old Jackson County husband told the Michigan Lottery. “It’s not a dream, but sure feels like it is!”

Watson had matched the game’s five white balls drawn in the Sept. 20 drawing — 05-26-28-37-42, according to an Oct. 13 news release.

“I had never played the Lucky For Life game, but decided to try in instead of Mega Millions or Powerball,” Watson said. “The next day I had an email saying I’d won a prize. Once I logged in to my Lottery account and saw how much I had won I was stunned.”

Watson recently went to claim his prize and was given two options: a one-time lump sum payment of $390,000 or annual payments of $25,000 a year. The annuity payments would last for 20 years, or a lifetime — whichever is greater.

He chose the one-time payment, and with his win, he plans to pay off his debt and save the rest.

Jackson County is in south Michigan, about 80 miles southwest of downtown Detroit. The winning ticket was bought online.

This story was originally published October 14, 2022 at 10:24 AM with the headline "Wife thinks she’s dreaming when husband wakes her up to share his Michigan lottery win."