Two Olds residents are figuring out how to spend $50,000 each after they won the $100,000 second prize in the Lotto 6/49 Extra draw.
Elsie LaFlamme and Gerda Irving received their money Tuesday, Sept. 2 after winning the prize in the Aug. 15 draw. They're splitting it 50/50.
Gerda bought the ticket at the Olds Sobeys store.
“One week she buys, the next week I buy,” LaFlamme says.
“I was shocked; I still am,” Irving says. “The most we ever won before was $128, I think, so we're getting our money back.”
Irving isn't sure yet what she'll do with all of her share but she has found a way to spend some of it so far. She used some to pay bills and she bought a new washing machine.
“My washer broke down so I had to buy a new one,” she says. “I might buy a car later on, but right now I'm not buying anything (else).”
LaFlamme says some of her winnings will go toward renovating her house.
“It needs quite a bit of stuff because I'm living in an older house so I'm doing my basement,” she says.
Another portion will go to her grandchildren.
“I've got seven grandchildren, so I'm giving so much to my grandkids to put away for school, college, and stuff,” she says.
She has plans for a bit more as well.
“Maybe next summer I'll go on a little trip,” LaFlamme says.
The two ladies figure they've been buying tickets for at least 10 years. LaFlamme notes when her son Cy was 20, he won $190,000.
They found out about the good news when Irving checked the ticket on Aug. 19.
“I could not believe it,” LaFlamme says.
“I was at home,” she recalls. “I was stretched out on my chair in the afternoon and the phone rang. She goes, ‘get over here; get over here as fast as you can.' I thought, ‘what the heck?' I thought something happened. She goes ‘no, there's zeros, zeros, zeros.' I go, ‘what?!”'
LaFlamme says a Sobeys clerk thought they had won $10,000, but her boss confirmed they won $100,000.
Irving says the last couple of weeks have been “kind of nerve-wracking” since she and LaFlamme won the prize and word of the win spread.
As part of the procedure to obtain the money, the two ladies had to go up to the Edmonton area, sign documents and pose for pictures.
They were even guarded by a security guard for a while. LaFlamme says the guard explained there has been lots of fraud in regard to Lotto prize pickups. However, he soon realized Irving and LaFlamme weren't a problem.
“He didn't stay the whole time,” she says. “He just goes, ‘I'm leaving.' I guess he figured, ‘ah, those two aren't going to do anything.'”
