NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) -
The Tennessee Lottery marked a milestone Tuesday with the 100th person to win $1 million in the history of the state's lottery.
A single scratch-off on Millionaire Jumbobucks brought an early Christmas for Thomas Ridenhour.
"Absolute total disbelief," Ridenhour said. "Of all the thousands and hundreds of thousands of millions of cards that are sold, just to have the opportunity to have that one card in my hand, I can't honestly say that anything could be any better of a feeling than that."
Since the lottery started in 2003, Ridenhour is the 100th winner of at least $1 million, and for Ridenhour, the win marks a turnaround in luck.
Three years ago, a bite from a brown recluse spider cost him a leg. He spent 100 days in the hospital and then later suffered a heart attack.
"Everybody has things that happen to them in their life," Ridenhour said. "All of that is hopefully behind me, and I now I can kind of start life again."
Someone else will win big this week. The state will hold a second chance drawing for tickets that didn't win the first time around.
Since it started, state lottery winners have racked up more than $5.6 billion in prizes.
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