A New Jersey family that purchased a ticket to last week’s $429.6 million Powerball-jackpot stepped forward at a press conference Friday to publicly announce they’re the winners.

“Wow. That is what it’s like,” said Pearlie Mae Smith, 70, at a news conference held at state lottery headquarters with her 7 adult children. “I’m still trying to figure-out what it’s like.”

Smith’s daughter Valerie Arthur, the spokesperson for the Smith family, announced that the sole winning ticket was purchased in Trenton for last Saturday’s drawing. The family matriarch spent $6 for 2 tickets for drawings that were held last Wednesday and Saturday, and spent an addition $1 on every ticket to get the “Power Play” option which multiplies the winnings.

Smith said the winning numbers were picked “through a dream — divine intervention” – and they didn’t use anniversaries or birthdays. Indeed, when Pearlie Smith purchased the winning ticket, she took the rare step of selecting the numbers herself, rather than opting to use numbers generated by a computer.

Arthur said the family matriarch took their ages into account when picking the lump sum. They announced that they have plans to tithe 10% of the winnings to their local church, go on a family vacation and also help their community. The other siblings, who were seated in front of dozens of cameras and reporters, said they do not plan to quit their jobs though had not yet told their bosses about the win.

Arthur explained that the family felt that it’s important to educate themselves regarding how to handle their new winnings, and so they decided to hire a team of attorneys and advisers to help them with the money.

The ticket is the largest sole jackpot winning ticket vended in New Jersey and the 6th largest in Powerball history. The winning numbers were 5-25-26-44-66, and with a Powerball number of 9. Powerball is played in 44-states plus Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The odds of winning are 1 in 292.2 million.

Source: http://tinyurl.com/hozvao7