When Bowden's Sandra Gyorffy got back from her trip to Nova Scotia she took a look at the stack of lottery tickets beside her computer.
The 70-year-old medical transcriptionist always plays the EXTRA draw, but she's never won any big money before. On one free play ticket she noticed the last two digits matched up - then the last three, then the last four, until she couldn't contain her excitement anymore.
“Oh my God, I've got them all!” she exclaimed. “It's a good thing I had showered and dressed because I probably would have gone down to the store in my PJs.”
There were two EXTRA draws on the ticket. Until the store clerk at the Bowden Reddi Mart verified the win she wasn't sure which prize she would walk away with. But it was only moments before she learned she was a $250,000 winner.
“For me it seemed surreal,” she said. “It was kind of a shock.”
Dale Lenting was at work in Red Deer driving truck for PROFORM when he noticed he had several missed calls. As a penny pincher without call display he figured he'd see if his boss needed anything. If it was his mom and she needed something she'd call back again, he figured. She did.
“You've gotta take Monday off,” she said. She quickly added they just scored $250,000 on one of the tickets they always buy together.
“Whatever,” he said. “It's not April Fool's you know.
“I don't need jokes at work.”
After repeating the message several times Lenting finally clued in that this was no joke. They were winners.
Right away they decided to use their money to pay off the mortgage on their modular home, and split the rest.
Gyorffy says she may quit one of her part time jobs, although she says working gives her something she enjoys doing with her time.
When she went in to work at the Red Deer Regional Hospital on Sept. 25, she was greeted by congratulations and best wishes from co-workers. No one has asked for money, she says.
“It's like a great big elephant off your back,” she says, describing what it's like to be one of the lucky ones. “I think it's quite unusual.”
Lenting knows what he'll do with his share. The day his cheque was released he was in the garage hard at work restoring the Ford '64 Falcon Futura convertible that used to belong to his mom.
Gyorffy is already dreaming about what it would be like to win again.
“I'm looking forward to lightning striking twice,” she said.
