An Illinois woman got the surprise of a lifetime when she found a forgotten lottery ticket in her purse and discovered it was worth $1 million. During a grocery run to Jewel-Osco in Elmhurst, Illinois, last month, she made a spontaneous decision to buy a ticket for the Lucky Day Lotto evening draw on October 20.

The ticket, which she picked up on a whim, was tucked away in her purse and soon forgotten. “While on my way to visit my aunt, I made a quick stop at Jewel to pick up a few groceries, and before heading out the door, I grabbed a quick pick Lucky Day Lotto ticket,” she shared in a statement released by the Illinois Lottery. “I actually put the ticket in my purse and forgot all about it.”

An Unexpected Surprise

The winning numbers for the October 20 Lucky Day Lotto draw were 2-3-24-25-28. However, the woman had no idea she held a winning ticket until days later. “A couple days after the drawing, I saw the ticket in my purse and opened my lottery app to scan my ticket and check if it was a winner,” she said. “I immediately saw ‘$1,000,000’ on the screen and I was in total shock.”

Overcome with disbelief, she scanned the ticket a second time to confirm. “When it showed ‘$1,000,000’ again, I instantly started crying,” she recalled.

Dreams of Traveling to Ireland

The unexpected windfall has made it possible for her to fulfill a longtime dream of traveling more frequently. “What I’m most excited about is being able to afford annual trips to my favorite place in the whole world: Ireland,” she said. “The landscape is stunning, and I’m thrilled that I can now look forward to these trips every year.”

According to Lottery USA, the odds of winning the Lucky Day Lotto jackpot are approximately 1 in 1.22 million, making her win all the more remarkable. She is now the ninth Illinois Lottery player this year to win $1 million or more with the Lucky Day Lotto.