A mother who could not buy gifts for Christmas

by Sumana Saparamadu

Sometime ago I related a few stories that were "stranger than fiction". Here is another one I found in my file of paper cuttings.

Maria Murray was a mother of four children - one son and three daughters. She was an unemployed housewife living in Avonmouth, Bristol, England, with her husband and four children. She was very sad during the Christmas season as she had no money to buy her children Christmas presents.

On Christmas eve as she was passing her local shop, she bought a lottery ticket. She said she bought it "on a whim" (sudden decision), with the last few pennies in her purse.

She went home and forgot about the lottery ticket, but her sadness had not left her. She gave each child a Christmas card and said she was sorry she could not get each one a gift.

When the results of the lottery were announced she showed her husband the card to check it out and he told her she had won one million pounds. She was dumbfounded. She was in shock for a short while, and then she started crying. It was later that she realised she had truly won one million pounds.

She won that prize on a "Merry Millions" festive lottery scratch card. A limited number of this festive card was on sale and carried "four top prizes of one million pounds."

After she came to terms with her unexpected luck, and was her usual self again, she said she would buy the three bedroom council house they were living in.

She gave each child 300 pounds and said she will be giving them 100,000 pounds each when she gets the money.

The five pound lottery card "really made her Christmas for her and for her whole family," said a neighbour. "She is still in shock and not ready to talk about it, yet."