Jean Dunn, 81, a resident of Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community in Lawrence, was pleasantly surprised on Mother's Day when she received a lottery ticket worth ,000 from her sons. Dunn says she will most likely use her winnings to help pay for living expenses at Pioneer Ridge.

Mother’s Day worked out quite well for Jean Dunn.

Her two sons, Dana and Dallas Dunn, bought their 81-year-old mother 15 lottery tickets to celebrate the holiday. And one of them turned out to be worth $2,000.

“Lottery tickets light her up,” Dana Dunn said. “Isn’t that cool? It’s so cool.”

Jean Dunn, who lives at Pioneer Ridge Retirement Community, has been buying or receiving lottery tickets for about the past year and a half.

“Ever since I took a trip to Illinois and Iowa,” she said. “It’s a wonderful diversion. It keeps your mind off whatever problems you may have.”

She’s won a couple dollars here, and few more there, even winning $100 twice. So her sons visited her Sunday bearing the perfect gift: lottery tickets – the crossword variety, of course, because she likes crossword puzzles, too.

After her sons left, Dunn started to scratch them off. When she realized she had nine words on one ticket, she could hardly believe it. She checked and rechecked and couldn’t fall asleep until almost 4 a.m. because she kept checking the words.

“I called my son first thing in the morning. I didn’t want to wake him up,” she said.

So far, everything seems to be in order. Prizes worth more than $600 must be submitted to the Kansas Lottery for redemption.

As for the prize money, Jean Dunn doesn’t plan to spend it on anything unusual. She will use it to pay rent.