Winning a million dollars was enough fro Sarah Carpenter who is a retiree from the small town of Waxhaw in Union County. She is more than happy with what she has got, after all she was so near not getting anything at all !

Sarah was making some errands at a the local pharmacy of the Harris Teeter on Kensington Drive in Waxhaw, she was about to leave when she decided that she would buy just one Powerball ticket for the minimum amount of $2.

After she bought it she placed it in her purse and forgot about it. However the day after the drawing, on a Sunday night, Sarah´s husband reminded her to check it. She decided to call the lottery´s hotline for players and that is when she saw each of her the numbers printed in her ticket being mentioned one by one. Lottery checker

“I said, ‘Oh, here’s a 9, then 31 – I’ve got that too, and 38,’” she recalled. “I stopped and said, ‘I’ve got all five of these.’”

Sarah was so thrilled to have matched the five white balls! Originally she thought that she had won only $200,000 however her daughter looked up the prize for matching all five white balls on the lottery’s website and discovered she had won much more than that.

“She said ‘Mama – it’s a million!’ and we started to holler,” Carpenter said.

The Powerball number on Carpenter’s ticket was a 21 and the one drawn was 20, just one small number and millions of difference! She would have won the $110 million jackpot. However nobody won the jackpot that night and it rolled until the next drawing.

“A million’s enough for me,” Carpenter said as she collected her winnings at headquarters. “I’m just so happy I can’t stand it.”

Carpenter and her husband have modest plans for their winnings. After taxes they will be receiving a check for $680,000. The happy winner is planning to share her newfound wealth with her three adult children, to give some back to their church, to pay some bills and the rest they will put it towards the bank.