Carolyn Taylor of Kinston said she’s going to take a dream trip to Jamaica after she won a $200,000 lottery prize.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” Taylor exclaimed. “I’m just going to take off and go.”

The retired school cook’s good luck happened Saturday when she asked her son-in-law to get her some lottery tickets.

“He’s always playing,” Taylor said. “So I figured I’d ask him to get me some.”

He stopped at Jeet 2003 Food Inc. on N.C. 42 in Clayton and bought Taylor a $200,000 Pay Day scratch-off ticket.

“I couldn’t believe it when I saw the first zero,” Taylor described. “I was afraid to keep scratching, but the zeros kept coming. I would have been happy with $10, but this is amazing!”

Taylor claimed her prize Wednesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. After required state and federal tax withholdings, she took home $141,003.

The $5 ticket launched in March with four top prizes of $200,000. Two top prizes remain.

Ticket sales from games like $200,000 Pay Day make it possible for the lottery to raise more than $600 million dollars a year for education. For details on how $3.6 million raised by the lottery supported education programs in Lenoir County last year, click on the “Impact” section of the lottery’s website, https://www.nclottery.com.