A Christmas present

by Sumana Saparamadu

Every now and again newspapers publish news items that are "stranger than fiction." Here is one I found in my cuttings file. It is from a newspaper published in England.

Maria Murray was an unemployed housewife, living in Avanmouth in Bristol, with her husband and four children, a son and three daughters.

She was very sad that year as she had no money to buy her children Christmas presents.

On Christmas Eve as she was passing the local shop she bought a lottery ticket. She said she "bought it on a whim" with the last change in her purse.

She went home and forget about the ticket, but her sadness had not left her. She gave each child a Christmas card and said she was very sorry and sad that she couldn't buy each one a present. On Christmas day they had their usual Christmas dinner.

On Christmas day the lottery was drawn, and when the results were announced, her husband told her that she had won five million pounds. She was dumbfounded. She was in Shock. After a few minutes when she realised that she had truly won 5 million pounds she started crying.

After they had their Christmas meal and she was her normal self again, she told the family that she will buy the three bedroom council house they were living in now.

After receiving her prize-money she gave her three children 200 pounds each and promised to give each 10,000 pounds later.