I had the great pleasure of talking over the phone yesterday with Rose Marks, an 88-year old Connecticut woman who won $1 million over the weekend when she “matched five” Powerball white ball numbers, only missing the red Power ball.

That won her $200,000. But because she exercised the Power Play option, she won $200,000 X 5 for a million prize.

Rose had just finished at the salon when I reached her… she is hard of hearing so her son picked up the phone.

Rose was getting ready for an appearance on The Today Show. Ellen DeGeneres was also calling. Rose’s kids told me how this all happened.

Waiting in line at a grocery customer service desk, Marks almost decided to step away before buying a Powerball Quick Pick ticket for the Saturday, September 20 drawing. But, “my feet didn’t move,” Rose said.

Instead, she waited for the one ticket she planned to buy, a Powerball with PowerPlay ticket. Cost: $2.

Rose’s patience was paid off with a $1,000,000 prize. Although more than 36,000 winning tickets were sold in Connecticut for Saturday’s Powerball drawing, Rose’s was the only ticket sold in Connecticut that matched the 5 white-ball numbers.

Accompanied by a family member, Rose arrived at CT Lottery offices on Monday to claim her prize. She hadn’t yet realized the value of the PowerPlay feature added to her ticket, and was “overwhelmed” when she became “Connecticut’s Newest Millionaire.”

Rose shared her plans for the prize money – to spread it among her children and her many grand and great-grandchildren.

The numbers drawn Saturday evening were 6, 28, 30, 40, 47, and the Powerball was 24. The PowerPlay multiplier was 5.

The jackpot for the Wednesday, September 24 drawing will be $176 million with the cash option at $89 million. The jackpot is currently the world’s largest lottery prize.

No one won last night’s Mega Millions draw so the jackpot rolls to $24 million on Friday. Four tickets matched five of six balls (missing only the Mega ball) and won $250,000 each. They played in Maryland, New York, Texas and Virginia.

Good luck tonight.