Pat Donavan, a retired system programmer from Scottsburg, found himself wide awake at 3 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 20.
“I’m on a weird sleep schedule, and this rarely happens to me,” Pat said. “I was just wide awake; I didn’t know why.”
Pat decided to check the Powerball® numbers on his phone. Pat couldn’t believe what he saw on his screen. His ticket matched four-of-five numbers and the Powerball—he had just won $50,000.
He said he was so excited he couldn’t fall back asleep the remainder of the night. “I was so excited, but I had to be quiet because I didn’t want to wake up my wife. I wanted to wait until morning to tell her,” the North Hyland Street resident recalled.
When his wife, Julie, woke up that morning, Pat could not wait to share the good news. “I showed her the ticket and she didn’t believe me. Once I showed her the numbers and the ticket, she couldn’t stop yelling, ‘Are you kidding me?!’” he said.
Pat and his wife could not wait to get on a video call with the whole family to tell them about their lottery win. When asked about his plans for the money, Pat said he was incredibly excited to surprise his wife and pay off his mother-in-law’s house.
