'Thanks Mom': Mother’s Valentine’s Day Gift Turns into $1 Million Jackpot for Son

A heartfelt Valentine’s Day card from a mother to her son turned into a life-changing surprise in the US state of Massachusetts. Matthew Broadley received a card from his mother on Tuesday and the card contained two instant tickets for the Massachusetts State Lottery’s ‘$4,000,000 Jumbo Cash’ game.

The son scratched the tickets around 11pm on the eve of Valentine’s Day and the first was not a winner but the second was a major winner. The second scratch fetched him a $1million prize, according to Massachusetts lottery officials.

“Thanks mom,” Broadley said after claiming his prize at the lottery’s headquarters in Dorchester on the holiday the next day. Broadley then posed with the large cheque showing the $1 million he won. He also held the card along with the cheque which had the words, ‘son’, ‘feeling proud’, ‘feeling happy’, and ‘feeling love’.

Broadley chose to receive the money as a one-time payment of $650,000 before taxes. He did not reveal what he would do with the money. His mother bought the ticket from Lakeview General Store in Tyngsborough. The Lakeview General Store in Tyngsborough will get a $10,000 bonus as well. Tyngsborough is about 35 miles northwest of Boston and the Broadleys reside there.

The Massachusetts State Lottery sold its first ticket in 1972. It has generated more than $131billion in revenues and given away more than $92billion worth of prizes since. The Massachusetts State Lottery also returned more than $28billion in net profit for the Commonwealth to help towns and cities and handed over over $7.5billion in bonuses and commissions to retailers across the state.

His win comes eight months after a retired person won the largest Mega Millions jackpot in the game’s history with a ticket from Liberty Beer and Convenience in Howard Beach in New York City. Johnnie Taylor, 71, received a lump sum payment of $157,288,402 after state and federal withholdings from the $476million jackpot.