Anyone who buys a ticket can become a lottery winner. There is no such thing as a “deserving” or “undeserving” winner. Rich people have as much chance as poorer people, men as women, and so on. Yet we are all attracted to the idea of a person improving their lot in a single moment. The story of one illiterate South African grandmother winning the lottery swept the country recently. A grandmother of five who can’t read or write, bagged an impressive R58m (approximately £3.1m). What is even more impressive is her system of choosing numbers bearing in mind she can’t read.
Illiterate South African Grandmother Wins Big
63-year-old Gladys Nchabeleng said that she doesn’t have a system. What’s more, her eyesight is not that good. She simply chooses whatever numbers takes her fancy at the time based on what she can make out on the ticket. It’s a system that has paid off for the illiterate South African grandmother as she’s won one of the biggest prizes in South African lottery history. Gladys attended a winner’s event and commented that she was not entitled to a pension from the state and were a low income family. She had won before, but the largest prize was just R50 (about £2.60).
She took the win ever so humbly. Having played for 5-6 years, her main concern was the good causes that the lottery money was funding. She never expected to win much, and certainly not such a large prize. All of her previous small winnings were ploughed back into the lottery to ensure the cycle continued and the hope of winning a large prize. That luck and patience finally paid off. Finally, she can live in comfort for her retirement and help out her family a little in the meantime. The night of the win, nobody slept due to the excitement.