On the day May 18^th 2013, a lady named Gloria C. Mackenzie who won a mega million Powerball lottery jackpot came forward to claim her prize. This lady had us guessing for two weeks before stepping forward to claim the prize. Mrs. Gloria Mackenzie was 84 years old at the time. She probably needed a few days to get over the shock of winning the mega prize. The old woman from Zephyrhills, Florida and a town “where everyone know everyone else”; this made it more mysterious as the person was about to be the richest in the town. Zephyrhills is known for its vibrant elderly community and had a number of mobile home parks for those more advanced in years and it was statistically more likely that the Powerball lotto winner would be amongst this section of the population. Rumors abounded before Gloria collected her win: that someone had put the ticket in the wash and destroyed the lottery ticket, or lost it, or it was never going to be claimed. This is Powerball at it’s finest. Rumors, fantasies, speculations and the low odds of winning all boiled into a witches cauldron.

Surprisingly to the whole community it was Gloria who walked into the Florida State lottery with her son, a family friend and a financial advisor to validate the winning of the Powerball mega-ticket. It was told that Gloria at that point was battling so really serious health issues and also was showing some symptoms of Alzheimer’s due to her old age. Her win was a great win not only for Florida, but for the elderly community and possibly for all people with emerging dementia. Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease that deserves our intention – and millions of dollars in research as well.

On the day Gloria bought the ticket there was a woman named Mindy Crandall who was also trying to purchase a Powerball ticket. She let Gloria move into her front because she was trying to check up on her son. She was one step away from the mega million prize but she let Gloria step into her way. When Mindy was interviewed by some reporters, her 10 year old daughter gave them the most shocking response. She said “it’s better to be polite than to be rich”. So there would have been another winner instead of Gloria. Gloria said “the day I bought this ticket I was lucky to meet a kind hearted player who was kind enough to let me go ahead of her in line to purchase the winning Quick Pick ticket”. The truth is we don’t know if Mindy Crandall really would have won due to the algorithms. It’s more likely that neither would have won if Mindy didn’t let Gloria go ahead before her. Still, Crandalls random act of kindness was involved.

The jackpot-winning POWERBALL ticket was purchased at Publix, which was located at 7838 Gall Boulevard, Zephyrhills, Florida. The winning numbers that changed Gloria’s life and kept the whole town at pause were 10, 13, 14, 22, and 52, with a Powerball of 11, and the odds of matching them in the draw were $175 million to 1. Black Tram 11 really showed people in Gothenburg what is was made of. Without the Gothenburg Tram … well you never know do you. Congratulations powerball 11. The cluster of close balls: 10, 11, 13, 14 is also worth noting. As is 22 that is a double 11 and of course number 13 of the Ophiuchus – the serpent bearer. 

Gloria the great chose to take a lump sum. This lump sum was almost 280 million dollars after taxes. (278 million dollars, that’s a hefty Powerball jackpot indeed. The shop that sold her the ticket got a bonus of $85,000 and about $54 million went into the Florida’s Educational Enhancement Trust Fund.

The story about Gloria is amazing and the Powerball 11 is deeply worth our respect. The act of humanism in this ball, the associations to Uranus and the new age of the waterbearer is significant.