Feel-good tale: Man gets $7M lottery ticket in get-well card
Posted: March 26, 2015 - 4:56am

New York State Lottery draw team member Gretchen Dizer interviews Joseph Amorese of Easton, Pa., and his wife Jodi, at a store in New City, N.Y., Wednesday, March 25, 2015. (AP Photo/The Journal News, Ricky Flores)
NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) -- A Pennsylvania man recovering from surgery has won $7 million off a lottery ticket tucked into his get-well card. Joseph Amorese, of Easton, got the ticket from his father, who lives in the hamlet of Congers in Rockland County, New York. Amorese had just undergone hernia surgery. A few scratches later on the "$7 million Golden Ticket," and he was feeling great. "I scratched the ticket and it was a good thing I was already sitting down because I was shocked. I was -- and still am -- in complete disbelief," Amorese said. "I had surgery so I didn't jump up and down, but in my mind I was jumping up and down," the beaming winner recalled Wednesday. He sent a photo of the ticket to his dad, who agreed that it was a winner. The 46-year-old Verizon employee then called his wife, Jodi, a social worker. "I said, 'Honey, I think we won $7 million.' And there was silence on the other end for a long time. She was too stunned to talk," Amorese said. Lottery officials presented Amorese with a ceremonial check at the dollar store in New City, New York, where the ticket was purchased. The new multimillionaire and his wife plan to keep their jobs.