Key keywords: Ohio lottery scratch-off winner, $30K Ohio lottery prize, widow lottery win, voice in head lottery pick, unexpected lottery windfall, Ohio Lottery Commission, lucky lottery intuition, holiday cash scratch-off A 72-year-old widow from suburban Cleveland, Ohio, has become the latest viral lottery winner after claiming a $30,000 scratch-off prize that she says she only purchased because of a persistent voice in her head. The woman, identified by local media as Marge Henderson, lost her husband of 48 years last fall and has lived on a fixed Social Security income since retiring from her job as an elementary school cafeteria worker in 2015. She told Ohio Lottery officials that she rarely buys scratch-off tickets, usually only purchasing one or two a year around the holiday season as a small treat for herself. Last Tuesday, Henderson stopped at her neighborhood Kroger grocery store to pick up milk and cat food for her two rescue cats, and was walking toward the exit when she says a clear, quiet voice in her head told her to stop at the lottery kiosk next to the checkout line. “I laughed it off at first, because I’d already spent my extra fun money for the month on birthday gifts for my granddaughter,” she said during her prize claim appointment at the Ohio Lottery’s regional office. “But the voice just kept repeating, ‘Grab the $5 Holiday Cash ticket, you need to get that one.’ I finally caved, dug the last $5 out of my purse, and bought it without even thinking twice.” Henderson said she forgot about the ticket in her purse until that evening, when she sat down at her kitchen table after dinner to open her mail. She scratched off the ticket slowly, and at first thought she had won $300, until she counted the zeros next to the prize amount and realized she had won 100 times that amount. “I started crying immediately, because I’d just gotten a quote for $28,000 to replace my leaking roof the week before, and I had no idea how I was going to pay for it,” she explained. “I really think that voice was my husband. He always told me I was too careful with money, and that I should let good things come to me sometimes.” After required tax withholdings, Henderson will take home roughly $22,500. She says she will use most of the money to cover the roof repair, set aside $3,000 for her three grandchildren’s college savings accounts, and donate $1,000 to the local animal shelter where she adopted her two cats. Ohio Lottery spokesperson Angela Smith noted that Henderson is the 8th scratch-off winner to claim a prize of $25,000 or more in the state in October 2024, and added that “intuition and gut feelings are the most common strategies winners tell us they use when picking their tickets.” The lottery commission reminds all players to purchase tickets responsibly, and only if they are 18 years of age or older.