(UPI) A Kansas woman is $50,000 richer after she decided to buy some lottery tickets as a means of cheering herself up during a sick day.

Louisa Dowling of Concordia told Kansas Lottery officials she woke up feeling ill Friday morning so she called into work and bought four $5 Super Red Hot Crossword instant scratch tickets to pass the time and cheer herself up some.

"After I bought my tickets, I went home to play them," said Dowling. As I was scratching one of the tickets, I noticed I had found five Red words in the Crossword puzzle. I was down to one last letter when I noticed all I needed was the letter 'P' to complete the sixth Red word. When I scratched off the last letter and it was a 'P,' I couldn't believe it! Needless to say, I started feeling better after that.

The six red words earned Dowling a $50,000 top prize.

"When I was double checking my ticket, I noticed my mailman was coming to our house, so I stepped out to ask him if he would look at my ticket," Dowling said. When he agreed it appeared my ticket was worth $50,000, I still had a hard time believing it. Before calling the Kansas Lottery to have the ticket verified, I had at least five people look at it. I was so afraid I had made a mistake or something. I was relieved when it was verified by the Lottery.

Dowling said some of the money will go toward publishing her romance novel. She said she also plans to pay off her bills and build a carport at her home.

Copyright 2017 by United Press International