A two-year job search has come to an end for one Californian.
No, she didn't get a job. Better: She won the lottery.
Linda Stephens, 60, of Huntington Beach purchased one of nine Powerball tickets in the state with five of six numbers -- all save the Powerball number -- that matched the jackpot combination. She was first Thursday morning to claim her $289,341 prize.
While Stephens has been searching for work, she said she and her family have been barely scraping by.
Her two daughters are grown -- one is 36 and the other 34 -- but she adopted her 17-year-old nephew, who still lives with the family. Her husband cannot work, she said.
The money should arrive in six to eight weeks, she said. In the meantime, Stephens keeps glancing at a symbolic check given to her, reminding herself the prize is real.
"When you've been out of money and you've been struggling, struggling, you just don't believe it," she said. "We don't have anything else going for us."
