Willis Carter has seen good and bad times, financially and health-wise, since he left his hometown of Walterboro, S.C., for northern Virginia nearly 50 years ago, when he was in his early 20s.

After suffering a heart attack when he was 55 years old, Carter, a former home oil delivery scheduler, had four heart surgeries and an operation for a bleeding ulcer. He was forced to retire for health reasons in 1992.

In 1999, he moved from Virginia, where housing was more expensive, to the Park View apartments for seniors in Laurel.

Because his medical bills were not always covered by insurance, sometimes it was hard for him to make ends meet after he retired.

"I get a small pension of $172 a month plus a Social Security check," the 71-year-old bachelor said.

But on Nov. 1, Carter got a financial boost when he was presented with gift cards worth $5,200 from Bottom Dollar grocery store officials, as the grand-prize winner in the store's first sweepstakes.

Carter was one of more than 100,000 Bottom Dollar shoppers who were entered in the drawing when they used their store membership cards between July 23 and Sept. 2. The contest included all 28 of the chain's grocery stores in Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.

"I remember seeing the sweepstakes printed on my grocery receipts, but I had no dream of winning and never gave it a thought because so many people swipe their (membership) cards when they buy groceries," Carter said.

When Carter was notified of his win by an Express Mail letter, he was skeptical about its legitimacy.

"I knew it cost about $16 to send the letter, so I thought it might be real. I took the papers to the manager at the store on (Route) 197 and he said it was for real," Carter said. "I mailed my letter back to them two days before the deadline."

Mayor Craig Moe attended the special presentation at the Rt. 197 Bottom Dollar on Nov. 1 when Carter received his gift cards, which are good for two years.

"I'm so happy for him," Moe said. "I'd better start using my Bottom Dollar food membership cards too."

Kimberly Blackburn, a Bottom Dollar spokeswoman, said the contest was an opportunity for the store to give back to its customers at a time when many are hurting financially, due to a slumping economy.

"We're a discount grocery chain that's about saving customers money, so we will periodically do other contests," Blackburn said.

She added that Bottom Dollar's parent company, Food Lion, where Carter can also use his cards, stresses community involvement in areas where their stores are located.

"We partner with local food banks where our stores are and we are encouraged to work with community schools too," she said.

After hearing Carter's life story, Blackburn said the prize could not have gone to "a more deserving person."

In addition to his health and financial problems as an adult, when he was only 3 years old, Carter's mother drowned. His father died at the age of 45, the same year Carter left South Carolina.

"I left to come and stay with my older brother in Virginia, who was in the Navy, because I wanted a better job than the midnight, minimum-wage shift work I was doing at factories," Carter said. "The last factory where I worked down there for two years weaved asbestos and the asbestos was flying all around. Everybody that worked there for a long time (is) now dead."

In the metro region, Carter worked for Griffith Consumers for 31 years, scheduling home oil deliveries. He never married and spent a lot of time going to baseball games, his favorite sport, with a brother in Philadelphia. That brother died of a heart attack 15 years ago at age 60. A younger brother died in recent years at age 63 of cancer. Carter's only close relatives are a brother in South Carolina and a nephew and his family in Delaware.

Carter still takes about nine different medicines for his heart problems, ulcer and other medical issues.

And although he has had many rough spots in his life, Carter said he's enjoying his retirement and spends time shooting pool occasionally and watching baseball.

At this stage in his life, he said the Bottom Dollar prize was a needed surprise.

"This will mean I can eat a lot better and healthier now and not have to pinch pennies quite as much," he said. "I have to be careful what I eat and I can't eat spicy food because of the ulcer surgery I had in 1986. But now I'll be able to get things like cranberry juice, grapes, strawberries and fresh vegetables.

"The cards will last me for two years, I'm sure, and I'll be able to save a bit more now."

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