Tonya and Robert Harris looked and sounded as if they hadn’t slept in two days, which happened to coincide with the amount of time that had passed since they learned they were the sole winners of the $270 million Mega Millions Lottery.
“You would never think something like this would happen to you,” Tonya Harris explained to TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Monday morning. “This is going to take a while. This is something you just dream about.”
Her husband, Robert, would normally have been at work at that hour, but he had called his boss on Saturday to say that he wouldn’t be in to work on Monday — or ever.
“I just let him know I had just hit the Mega Millions and I would not be back to work,” the 47-year-old said in declaring himself retired effective immediately from a 21-year career as an ironworker. “No more hard hats and no more tools.”
Instead, there would be a new four-wheel-drive truck for him and a new car for his wife.
“She wants a new Lexus,” he told Vieira.
“Mercedes,” she corrected him. “I want a Mercedes.”
He readily agreed.
Money will come in handy
The Harrises live in a trailer in Portal, Ga., a rural community of nearly 600 souls about 50 miles northwest of Savannah. They admit to struggling to make ends meet.
“It’s been rough the last couple years, but we managed to make it,” Robert Harris said.
Playing the lottery wasn’t something that was normally in their budget, but when the Mega Ball jackpot hit $270 million for last Friday night’s drawing, Robert decided while he was at work in Atlanta to play his six grandchildren’s birthdays: 7, 12, 13, 19 and 22. He had to call his daughter to make sure of the kids’ birthdays, then when he went to a store to buy the ticket, a storm knocked out the power and the lottery machine was down.
He brought the ticket form home and asked his wife to go down to Clyde’s Market, Portal’s local convenience store, to submit it in order to buy the ticket.
Just after 8 the next morning, their oldest daughter called to tell them that the grandkids’ birthdays had come through.
Phones were ringing off the hook in town by then as reporters called from everywhere trying to find out who in Portal had won the giant prize. By early afternoon, television trucks were pulling in and the Harrises were on their way from small-town obscurity to national celebrities.
They held a little party for the family on Saturday night and planned to go to Atlanta later on Monday to claim their prize at the state’s lottery office.
Robert Harris said he would take the prize in a lump sum instead of in annual installments. Lottery officials said that would yield $164 million before taxes and $100 million after — more than enough for a truck and a Mercedes for Tonya and Robert Harris and a secure future for their children and grandchildren. They’ve talked about buying a piece of land and building a house, too.
Vieira suggested that the couple give their grandchildren a hug for providing the winning numbers.
“That and God,” said Tonya Harris. “We do believe in the Lord, and He had a lot to do with it.”