Folks, the next time you have a hankering for some ice cream, I advise you drop whatever you are doing and feed that craving! Hey, it worked for Louise White! The 81-year-old is the winner of the third biggest Powerball jackpot in Rhode Island history, and she says she owes it all to a trip to the Stop & Shop to pick up some rainbow sherbet!
Well, that and the fact that Louise White is one feisty granny. Apparently her family member with a taste for the cold sweet stuff offered to pick something up for her at the store, but this octogenarian was having none of it. She was going too ... and she wanted said family member to get a move on. Score one for geriatrics who are still kickass and raring to go!
Did I mention she's even on Facebook? Of course she is! Which could give us a hint about what she'll do with all the cash.
The jackpot was $336 million, but White opted for the lump sum payment of $210 million instead of 30 annuity payments paid out over 29 years. She will pay about $52.5 million in federal taxes and $14.7 million in state taxes, but that still leaves a whole lotta dough. And with a lady this cool, I am holding out hope that she's going to paint the town red!
No offense to her family here, but when you get a windfall this big at that age, you have every right to say the hell with the grandkids and go out and spend, spend, spendy, spend, spend. I don't mean to be crass, but we can't live forever (sadly). Even if she's in the prime of health and going to be around for another 20 years -- and I hope she is -- a win at 81 is karma's way of telling her she can only have it so long, she might as well have fun with it! And by George (what, she's 81), she deserves it. I'd want nothing less for my grandmother.
I think a car and driver are in order, for one, so she can indulge in a trip to get something sweet any time without worrying about someone else taking her on a trip. And maybe a trip to Napa is in order for a taste of the country's most expensive ice cream sundae: it's no rainbow sherbet, but the $3,333 banana split is made with syrups from three rare dessert wines, and it's served with an ice cream spoon from the 1850s (still older than Louise!).
Heck, with that kind of money, she can just buy an ice cream shop. Rainbow sherbet for everyone!
If you won the Powerball at 81, what would you spend it on?
Image via dno1967b/Flickr