CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. — When 35-year-old Tara Tuttle found out that her partner of seven years, Cary Tullos, did not have breast cancer after anxiously awaiting the test results, she was happy and relieved.
But life got better for her and Tullos the day she received word that cancer wasn’t going to be a problem for the couple. In an interview with the Miami Herald, Tuttle said that that evening, they visited a local Publix supermarket and while she was waiting on her partner to pick-up some hair conditioner, she bought a Billion Dollar Blockbuster scratch-off ticket.
The next day she found out that she had won a prize worth $10 million dollars. “That was the best day of my life,” she said.
On Friday, Tuttle and Tullos, who are domestic partners, and their two children drove to the Florida Lottery headquarters in Tallahassee to claim the $6.5 million lump sum.
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“You not having breast cancer means far more to me than this,” Tuttle remembers saying to Tullos, whom she considers her wife. “This is just a gift.”
Tuttle told the Florida Lottery officials that she wants to use some of the winnings to help people affected with cancer, adding, “I’m the girl that always gives money in the grocery line.”
Tuttle said that she has always been a big believer in positive thinking. In fact, she had bought another scratch-off ticket earlier and didn’t win, but carried it around with her for a month and a half, and occasionally joked around with her family about what would happen if they won.
