WATCH: Former Patchogue Hairdresser Wins Publishers Clearing House $1M Prize

Rosemary Cella says she never anticipated that she could win $1 million. But there was always that chance that she might, so she made it a habit to play the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.

Fortunately, Port Washington-based Publishers Clearing House showed similar perseverance when representatives went to three locations before they finally found Cella, a former hairdresser from Patchogue, and told her that she had won $1 million.

They looked for Cella first in Florida, and then again on Long Island before tracking Cella at her daughter’s Patchogue home, where she was visiting with family.

“Oh my God!” Cella said when she saw the PCH rep holding an oversized check for $1 million at the doorstep of her daughter’s home.

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“Get out of here – are you serious?” Rosemary Cella’s husband Dan Cella said. After realizing that that his wife had indeed won the $1 million, and that the presentation was not a joke, he said, ”I’m going to collapse.”

At Rosemary’s urging, Dan held it together, and the story of his wife’s faith in the sweepstakes unfolded.

Rosemary had long played the PCH sweepstakes. Her motto? “Don’t give up.”

And while Dan admits he’d been a skeptic, he said of Rosemary, “She was a true believer in Publisher’s Clearing House.”

Still, Rosemary never expected to win, though she kept at it.

“I kept saying, ‘You got to do what you got to do – I never gave up,” she said.

Rosemary said she “kept entering and entering for years.”

With the winnings, she plans to buy a home in a Long Island gated community, and take a family trip to Italy where she has relatives.

On Friday, she and her family will visit PCH’s Port Washington’s headquarters by limo. The full VIP treatment will include a presentation and celebratory lunch.

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