He and his family feasted upon a Thanksgiving meal including turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. The prize ticket was stored in a bureau drawer before McLeish drove to Dorchester, Mass., the next day to collect his prize. The store will receive a $10,000 bonus for its sale of the winning ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery. " 'He goes, 'I wasn't even going in that store if it weren't for buying you a ticket.' " "He goes, 'I went back to that same store where I bought the $1,000 winner,'" McLeish recalled. Adding to the unusual tale: That ticket was purchased at the same Quickeez Beer, Wine and Convenience in Carver, Mass., as the million-dollar win, he said. He previously won $500 and pocketed $1,000 two years ago when the same friend, whom he won't identify, sent him a lottery ticket as a birthday gift, he said. McLeish has had some - if smaller - lottery luck in the past. I didn't want to test my heart too much." Video: What it's like to have cancer surgery during a pandemic "I just made sure I was breathing through my nose and out my mouth. "I was calm and a little bit in disbelief," he said.
The bottom row word read "heart" - and clenched him the million-dollar prize. He kept scratching off words on the ticket, which looks like a crossword puzzle. The letters it revealed: AWM, his initials. What he saw next shook him so much he texted his friend and his brother to tell them the ticket was haunted. McLeish began scratching off the Massachusetts State Lottery's "$5,000,000 100X Cashword" ticket at his Attleborough, Mass., home with one of his sons by his side. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. McLeish, 62, was recovering from open-heart surgery performed earlier in November when he received a get-well-soon card in the mail along with some lottery tickets in a yellow, bubble-wrapped envelope from a friend of more than five decades. Massachusetts native Alexander McLeish had a lot to be thankful for on Thanksgiving.