The SEPTA-48 Lottery winners came forward on Friday, ending the suspense, claiming their $172.7 million dollar jackpot and telling some humorous, heart-warming and yes -- lucky stories.
Larry Green got all choked up telling the story of how he danced his way to love and prayed his way to a winning ticket.
Green, who has been a SEPTA employee for more than 30 years, spent some time in the Air Force when he was younger. On his off-duty time, when he was about to get out of the service, Larry pursued his passion and became a ballroom dance teacher. When he got back to Philly, he met his wife at a dance one night.
"She said, 'I wanted to meet somebody who knew how to dance,' and I said, 'Well, here I am!'"
Larry says they danced for a long time and were married for a long time.
"She always talked about us hitting the lottery," Larry said. And this is when he got a little emotional. "She died a year and a day before the lottery drawing."
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Larry's sister-in-law had a prayer said for his wife on the very day of the drawing.
"I prayed for a lottery win. I prayed to certain saints. And after we won, I kept praying to those saints and I just wanted to say, never doubt the power of prayer, and that's it."
The SEPTA-48 are a tight group of workers who've been pooling their money, some for years, and buying lottery tickets. Larry and the rest of the SEPTA-48 decided to take a lump sum of cash today. They walked away with about $2.2 million each.