(AUSTIN)— Proving the adage that it takes only one ticket to win, Donna Lynch of Austin, a retired state employee, bought one Mega Millions® ticket for last Friday’s drawing and won a significant supplement to her retirement check, $1 million.

Lynch purchased her ticket with the Megaplier® feature and matched five of the six numbers drawn minus the Mega Ball. Because the Megaplier number for that night’s drawing was four, she was able to multiply her original $250,000 into $1 million.

She and her sister, Cheryl Roberts, who accompanied her to Lottery headquarters, were both employed by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) for more than 20 years. Lynch, who retired in 2005, issued licenses for concealed guns. Her sister worked in the driver’s license division, where she monitored and suspended the licenses of repeat offenders.

“I still can’t believe this is real,” she said. “Even though I always believed it would happen, it’s almost too much to believe that it finally has.”

She and Roberts made sure to check the numbers on their computer on Friday night.

What they found made Roberts grab the phone and call her son right away.

“Donna told me to double-check the numbers four or five times before she could settle down,” she said. “I called Nico, who lives with us, to come home right away because I had something to tell him. He was out with his friends and came back thinking something bad had happened. He doesn’t think that anyone wins playing the lottery.”

Lynch then called her daughter, Dani, in California, who is a photography student at the renowned Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara.

“This was wonderful news to her, too, because this means I can now send her on the photography trip her class is taking to Paris next year,” she said. “Dani also insisted on being the one to break the news to Nico.”

Lynch got off the phone and promptly stashed the ticket in the house safe. Having the ticket in the house, Lynch said, apparently augmented her sense of hearing, as every little house noise and twig-snap was cause enough to wake her up.

“After today, it’ll be good to get some real sleep,” she said. “It hasn’t hit me yet that I actually won this money. Maybe when I buy something and I don’t have to worry about stretching my check even more, it’ll be real to me.”

The new winner adds to her retirement by doing ‘temp’ work when she needs or wants to. She plans to continue doing temp work.

Lynch and her sister carefully watch how they spend their retirement checks, but both agree that they plan to have some fun with this prize. They’re both keeping an eye on gas prices, too.

“Right now, we share a vehicle,” Lynch said. “Also, with gas prices the way they are, there might be a Tahoe Hybrid in our near future.”

There’s a trip to Las Vegas that’s also in their near future.

“This is the fun part,” Roberts said. “This year, we’re going to Vegas and we will also be going to California to see Dani, so we plan to enjoy some of this prize money. Later on, maybe in a couple of years, we all want to go to Ireland to see where our ancestors were born.”

For the time being, Lynch, her sister and their nephew will celebrate winning by dining at the Salt Grass later this week.

“We are always pleased to see a former state employee win a prize, especially one this significant,” said Texas Lottery Commission Executive Director Anthony J. Sadberry. “She has also proven once again that it takes only one ticket to win. The Lottery is grateful to Ms. Lynch for allowing us to publicize this win because, as she said, Lottery proceeds go to help fund public education. It’s always good to remind the public of the Texas Lottery’s mission to generate funds for the Foundation School Fund.”

Roberts for many years has been asking her sister, “What are the odds of another Austin DPS employee winning the Lottery?” The reason for that is that a former co-worker was part of the Klepac Family Limited Partnership that claimed a Lotto Texas® prize of $4.8 million in June of 1995.

“Before our father died, he told us to keep on playing, but to buy only one ticket,” Lynch said. “I knew it would happen for us.”

She bought her ticket at the Spring Food Mart, 13125 Pond Springs Road in Austin. The numbers drawn for the May 9 Mega Millions drawing were 16—31—43—46—56, and the Mega Ball was 22.

Tonight’s Mega Millions jackpot is worth an estimated $166 million. Tomorrow’s Lotto Texas jackpot is worth an estimated $12 million.