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He just retired; she got laid off. Then they each won a million dollars.

A couple of lucky Massachusetts residents bested the lottery's remote odds last month.

By Chloe Courtney Bohl

August 2, 2023

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Though the odds of winning big in the lottery are extremely slim, two recent Massachusetts success stories prove that luck can strike at the most unexpected moments. 

Paul Bashaw, 65, gave his boss of 20 years his two-week notice on Monday, July 17. Three days later, he went into the J & J Variety store on West Boylston Street in West Boylston and bought a “$5,000,000 100X Cashword” scratch-off lottery ticket. It ended up being worth a million dollars.

Bashaw finished out his two weeks, keeping the good news to himself, before collecting his prize money on July 28. He opted for a one-time payout of $650,000.

“I told my wife there were three things in life I never thought I’d see happen: the Patriots winning the Super Bowl, getting a hole in one — that happened five years ago — and hitting the Lottery, and now I’ve hit all three,” Bashaw told the Massachusetts Lottery.

He plans to spend some of his winnings on travel.

While Bashaw was working his last couple weeks before retirement, Rae Ann Wentworth-Cadieux of Hadley was reeling from being laid off after 25 years in Hampshire College’s IT department. But she, too, was about to get a stroke of good luck.

Wentworth-Cadieux matched the first five numbers in the July 19 Powerball drawing (but didn’t guess the Powerball number) and was in Dorchester two days later to collect her million-dollar prize at the state lottery headquarters. She plans to use the money to buy a summer home.

After winners have collected their prizes (and retailers their commissions), revenues from the Massachusetts Lottery go back to the state’s cities and towns to fund infrastructure improvements and other community projects. The lottery netted about $1.2 billion last fiscal year.