by Janet Hurley / photo by Milt Hawes

We read about the lucky ducks who win the lottery and figure it was a once-in-a-lifetime event—something that will never happen to us. But it does happen. In January, Rebecca Carrier, a Hickory native and former truck driver who lives in Taylorsville, was on her way to the 3M Polymask plant where she works second shift making protective tape. She stopped off at the Market Basket, a convenience store on Highway 16 in Conover, one of two stores she visits regularly to buy lottery tickets. Since North Carolina started the lottery in 2005, she has won smaller amounts of money. Just the week before, she won $500 and then $1,000 in scratch-off games. “My hand was shaking,” Carrier says. “I was really caught off guard when I saw the $100,000.”
She went on to work to show her friends. “I tell them that when I hit the big one, I’ll share the luck,” she says. And she’s not kidding. She has the unshakeable belief that she will someday win millions.

Amazingly, the $100,000 windfall probably won’t translate into huge life changes. She can’t stop work or pay off her mortgage, but she will pay off her car and other bills. Some of the money, about $68,000 after taxes, will go into savings. Carrier has already spread some of the wealth. She sponsored a dinner for every shift at the Polymask plant and sent money to St. Jude’s Hospital for Children. Two of her grandsons received laptops. Carrier has no plans to travel, having seen the country as a truck driver. If she wins “the big one,” she’ll take care of her family and then buy matching trucks for herself and Roger, her husband of ten years. Roger, a truck driver who doesn’t play the lottery, says what she does with the money is her decision. And no one else has offered advice, either. “I’m kinda hard-headed,” she says. “They know they might as well keep their mouths shut.”