She’s sew lucky: Retired seamstress wins $7M lottery jackpot

How about a $7 million lottery ticket with your coffee?

That’s the scenario that led to Halina Jozwik, 72, of West Hempstead, being awarded a $7 million ceremonial check Wednesday by the New York State Lottery.

The retired seamstress stopped for coffee at the 7-Eleven, at 383 Hempstead Tpke. in West Hempstead, where she bought that top prize ticket in the New York Millions scratch-off game.

Jozwik, mother of two and grandmother of four, said that as she drank her coffee, she handed the ticket to her husband in the car, and he started scratching.

“I scratched off all the numbers on the ticket and then went back to the top to scratch off the prize amounts,” said Ronnie Jozwik, a retired machinist. “I thought it might be $7,000, but then I saw more zeros,” he said.

The couple, married for 53 years, “both thought it might be a fake at first,” he said.

So, they asked their oldest son, Ted Jozwik, who happens to be a CPA, to come over after work. At first, “they never said anything about the ticket. It took them a while to bring it up even after I got there,” their son said.

With them all still getting used to the idea of hitting it so big, Halina Jozwik, originally from Poland, said apart from helping family, no other plans had yet been made for the money.

She’ll receive a lump-sum payment of $4,632,600 after required withholdings, the lottery said.

It is the final such prize because the NY Millions game is now officially retired, a spokesman said.