Retired long-haul truck driver, Gary Hill of Kamloops, B.C. wondered for years what it would be like to be a lucky millionaire and now the time has come for him to realise his dreams.
In a livestreamed media announcement, the B.C. Lottery Corporation revealed the lucky jackpot winner who shared a $70-million prize from the June 22 Lotto Max draw with another Ontario player.
In the livestream, Hill excitement was palpable as he struggled to relay his feelings, saying,
“Right now, I’m soaking it all in, I feel normal. I feel like it’s another day to me. Of course, it’s not and I am speechless right now. I thought I had a whole bunch of things to say, but the words aren’t coming out.”
Hill eventually regained enough of his composure to recall how he had only discovered his massive windfall after his mom insisted that he check his ticket that he had purchased at McGoo’s Smokes N Stuff at North Hills mall in Kamloops. In a strange twist of fate, this was not his normal location for lottery tickets, which he normally buys at a local gas station.
Continuing his story, Hill said,
“My mother told me I should check my ticket, that someone in Kamloops had won, so I memorized my numbers, then I punched them in my phone and I read off the (winning) numbers. I actually swore and said, ‘Those are my numbers!’ I had to read it again and my legs went like spaghetti and I grabbed the wall. I fell on the bed and cried for 15 minutes.”
After getting back to his mother, he shared the amazing news with his two sisters and brother-in-law.
When asked about his plans, Hill said,
“I really don’t know what to do. When it hits the bank, probably a month before I know what I’m going to do. I’m just going to come back to earth because I’m off-planet right now. I have to come back to earth and get things back to normal.”
He explained that he does intend to travel to Denmark when it is safe to do so, but that he will always call Kamloops home.
Hill revealed a seemingly supernatural element to his luck when he said that he had spotted a dragonfly on consecutive days before buying the winning ticket.
“So I googled it and it said, ‘Luck and prosperity and abundance and all this,’ and that was June 22. The dragonfly, two days in a row, bought me luck. The full moon, it was the luckiest moon in my life, and here I am,” he beamed.
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