Loyalty to a favorite store led Trina Cotton of Castalia to a $200,000 prize.

“I have a pattern where I usually go to the same store,” she said.

Cotton said Friday night she had an appointment at a nail salon and afterward she started to head home. She then realized she forgot to buy a scratch-off ticket like she normally does.

“There was a store right across the street from the salon but I did a U-turn and drove about 20 minutes to go to my usual store,” she said. “I listened to the voice in my head telling me to go to my store.”

Cotton bought her lucky $5 Mega Bucks ticket at Turner’s Mini Mart on Benvenue Road in Rocky Mount.

“I went home and started scratching and then I thought, ‘This can’t be right,’” she said. “I had to put my glasses on to make sure I was seeing it right.”

She said she has told people for years that she would win big playing the lottery.

“I really have dreamed about this,” Cotton said.

Cotton arrived at lottery headquarters Monday to collect her prize and, after required state and federal tax withholdings, took home $142,501.

“If somebody in my family calls out for help, now I am able to help them,” she said.

Cotton said she wants to make sure her family, including her nine grandkids, is comfortable.

The Mega Bucks game debuted this month with eight $200,000 top prizes. Cotton won the first top prize in the game. Seven $200,000 prizes remain to be claimed.

Ticket sales from scratch-off games make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $2.5 million a day for education. A $10 million grant, using money raised by the lottery, helped Nash County build the new Red Oak Elementary School. For details on other ways Nash County benefits from lottery funds, visit www.nclottery.com and click on the “Impact” section.