How Mom of Four Who Won $188M in Powerball Plans to Spend the Money

Moms of the world, rejoice: One of our own has hit the jackpot. Mother of four Marie Holmes has come forward to say that she won $188 million with her Powerball ticket in the $564 million lottery drawing on Wednesday.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack when I saw the ticket and checked it,” the 26-year-old from Shallotte, North Carolina, told WECT the next day, showing a reporter her golden ticket (though Holmes hasn’t officially been verified as a winner yet). She added that her reaction gave her son and three girls a real fright. “I was telling my kids that we don’t have to struggle any more, and I was yelling when I did it, so they ran and said I’d scared them.” 

The shock is obviously a welcome one, though, especially because Holmes is currently unemployed after having had to quit her jobs at Wal-Mart and McDonald’s to care for her children, one of whom has cerebral palsy. “I’ve been struggling since I had them,” she said. “But I wouldn’t trade [anything] because they’re a blessing. I’m just thankful that I can actually do for them without anybody’s help. I don’t have to worry about struggling anymore.” 

Photo by WECT

Holmes can choose to take her $188 million as an annuity paid over 30 years, according to the North Carolina Lottery’s Twitter page, or as a $127 million lump sum payment before federal and state taxes are withheld. The other two tickets were bought in Puerto Rico and in Texas. Either way, Holmes and her children are set for life. 

“This is all for them, everything is all for them, all the struggle that I ever went through is all for them,” she said. “They can go to college, all on me and they don’t have to worry about anything…I’m thankful I can bless my kids with something that I didn’t have.” 

But before Holmes starts spending on the house that she wants to buy her brood or open funds for their education and savings she says she plans to pay her tithe — by definition a tenth of one’s income — to her church. “First I’m going to pay my tithe because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God,” she said.