Former custodian wins Mega Millions jackpot

LOWELL, Mass. (AP) -- A house-cleaning retiree no longer has to mop her own floors or dust her own furniture.
By winning a $294 million Mega Millions jackpot, Geraldine Williams can hire all the personal housekeepers she likes.
Williams, 68, a former college custodian who now cleans private homes, won the second-largest single ticket jackpot in North America, The Sun of Lowell reported today. She was to receive a ceremonial check today.
"She was a wonderful person," Mary Recko, a former coworker at UMass-Lowell, told The Associated Press. "Everybody liked her. All of us here are so happy that it was her who won."
Friends and family described Williams as a down-to-earth woman who fully intended to keep an appointment to clean a client's home until she was told she had to meet with financial advisers.
She has three children and eight grandchildren.
The $294 million is the highest prize in the multistate Mega Millions game. The winning ticket, sold at a Lowell wine store, will pay $11 million a year for 26 years before taxes or a lump sum of $168 million before taxes.