SHERIDAN — For years, Timothy Burdess has relied on the Angel Tree program to provide Christmas presents for his son, Ryan. But this is the first year that Burdess can help someone else, and he is “really proud of that fact.”
“I know it is not a lot, but when I was on the receiving end, it was a lot,” said Burdess, of Sheridan. “To be able to put back into the community like I got whenever I didn’t have the money, or was low on money, means everything.”
Burdess and his wife, Christina, claimed a $3 million lottery prize Oct. 15. They got married on Oct. 17.
“It just seemed like everybody around me, including my family and her family, were more excited than I was,” Burdess said. “And for her, it took a while for it to sink in that we did win.
“Now she likes it, but she just hates the publicity. After we claimed it, we were over in Benton doing some shopping, and some lady stopped us and asked us if we were the winners. …
“… We have been getting that quite a bit. She doesn’t like the attention. But me, I live it up. I love it.”
Their ticket matched all five white numbers and had the Megaplier, which turned a $1 million prize to $3 million. According to Bishop Woosley, the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery director, it is the fourth-highest lottery prize ever won in the state.
“I usually don’t do the Megaplier, but she did this time,” Burdess said. “She’s the one who picked up the tickets for me that day because I was home with a stomach virus.”
When Burdess went in later to check his ticket, the employee behind the counter said Burdess would have to contact the Lottery Commission for the claim because it was over $500.
“He said, ‘I bet you’re the one that won the $3 million,’” Burdess said. “He ran the numbers for me to see how many I hit, and looking at the numbers, I had five out of the six, just didn’t hit the Mega Millions ball.
“He was a lot more excited than I was.”
Burdess said he walked outside and sat down on the curb for a minute before calling Christina, his girlfriend at the time.
“When I got home, she was waiting at the door with the lottery numbers,” he said. “She looked at the printout and the numbers and her phone and then walked away for a minute, turning everything over. She looked at it again before letting her mom know and trying to get the number for her mom’s family attorney.”
Burdess said that even when he told his mom, Sharon Harp, he didn’t act much differently than he does any other day.
“I am a pretty calm person,” he said. “For me, this is great, but I don’t get any more excited than I am right now.”
Burdess was born in Ohio but grew up in Sheridan, graduating from Sheridan High School in 1990. He said his wife’s family is from the North Little Rock area, and she graduated from J.A. Fair High School in Little Rock.
For the most part, the Burdesses are trying to be smart with their newfound wealth.
“We went and bought a house and paid straight cash for it, and we got all of our bills paid off,” Burdess said. “Her Jeep, and the truck I just bought, we just paid straight cash.
“So insurance on the vehicles and the new house, and property taxes, electric, gas, water and our normal bills only come up to about $10,000 a year.”
Therefore, Burdess’ plan is to return to work after being a stay-at-home dad for the past two years. His wife, who was working for Baptist Health Medical System in Little Rock, will stay home with their children.
“All I have to have is a job that pays over $10,000 a year, and we don’t have to touch any of the money for our normal bills,” Burdess said. “Anytime I make over $10,000, I can throw it into my son’s trust fund.”
Burdess said he is not sure what kind of job he will eventually land, but he said it will most likely be general labor. He worked for DirecTV for nine years before he resigned to take care of his son full time.
“I missed a lot of work when I was living in Arizona. That’s why I ended up moving back here, because I didn’t have any family in Arizona,” he said. “I didn’t have anyone I could turn to. But with the school there, the Angel Tree project and other programs in the community, it helped.
“But I just couldn’t make it financially, because the cost of living in Phoenix is outrageous.”
Ryan, 12, has Fragile X syndrome, a severe case of autism, and Christina’s son, Teddy, also 12, is autistic as well, but his is not as severe. Christina also has a 22-year-old daughter, Catherine, who has Asperger’s syndrome.
“We want to make sure the kids are taken care of, especially the two younger ones because they are going to need caregivers their whole lives if something ever happens to me or her,” Burdess said. “For Teddy, there is just not a lot of stuff that he can do on his own, so that is the goal — to make sure their lives are taken care of, and my son’s blood line is taken care of after that.
“My son has two brothers and a sister, but they aren’t my biological children. We just want to make sure the family is taken care of in the future.”
Burdess is trying to invest as much money as he can to earn more money, to make sure his son is covered.
“Now I know he will be taken care of,” Burdess said. “Legally, financially, everything is written down to a T. That’s a big relief — knowing that he is taken care of.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.