The 14th of April 2021 is a date that Liliane Fortin will never forget, because it is the day when a surprise phone call changed her life forever.
The call came from Loto-Québec and was to inform her that she had won over $15 million from her LottoMax ticket that she had purchased online for the April 13 draw.
“There was a lot of doubt at the beginning, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it,” she recalled.
Fortin was in a state of disbelief and repeatedly asked the Loto-Québec employee if they were being serious.
“She told me to check so I did, and I saw that the amount was what she told me. I rechecked several times,” Fortin related in an online interview with Loto-Québec.
Fortin is a retiree from the Capitale-Nationale region and stated that she occasionally bought group tickets with her co-workers when a big jackpot was on the line. Her ticket purchases remained sporadic with the latest, winning one being an act of spontaneity.
Fortin revealed that she didn’t pick the numbers she normally does, instead, going for an automatically generated random selection.
Fortin’s $15,231,359 win represents only half of the total jackpot, with a winner in another province collecting the other piece of the prize. Aside from the massive win, Fortin holds the distinct honor of claiming the largest prize ever won in the province via an online ticket purchase. A win of $70m last year was won from a physical purchase.
Fortin initially only shared the good news with her husband and their two children, and when asked if she was happy, she could barely contain her emotion.
“I picked the ticket at the right moment. Of course I’m very happy, you can’t not be happy with that. When I would win $20, I was happy, we aren’t too difficult to please.”
The lucky winner wasted no time in treating herself to an essential purchase.
“I made a big first purchase, I went to buy myself some new glasses,” she chuckled.
When asked about what else she and her husband were planning, Fortin didn’t reveal any concrete plans.
“We’ll take the time to dream, but now maybe our dreams can come true,” she said.
The call came from Loto-Québec and was to inform her that she had won over $15 million from her LottoMax ticket that she had purchased online for the April 13 draw.
“There was a lot of doubt at the beginning, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe it,” she recalled.
Fortin was in a state of disbelief and repeatedly asked the Loto-Québec employee if they were being serious.
“She told me to check so I did, and I saw that the amount was what she told me. I rechecked several times,” Fortin related in an online interview with Loto-Québec.
Fortin is a retiree from the Capitale-Nationale region and stated that she occasionally bought group tickets with her co-workers when a big jackpot was on the line. Her ticket purchases remained sporadic with the latest, winning one being an act of spontaneity.
Fortin revealed that she didn’t pick the numbers she normally does, instead, going for an automatically generated random selection.
Fortin’s $15,231,359 win represents only half of the total jackpot, with a winner in another province collecting the other piece of the prize. Aside from the massive win, Fortin holds the distinct honour of claiming the largest prize ever won in the province via an online ticket purchase.
Fortin initially only shared the good news with her husband and their two children, and when asked if she was happy, she could barely contain her emotion.
“I picked the ticket at the right moment. Of course I’m very happy, you can’t not be happy with that. When I would win $20, I was happy, we aren’t too difficult to please.”
The lucky winner wasted no time in treating herself to an essential purchase.
“I made a big first purchase, I went to buy myself some new glasses,” she chuckled.
When asked about what else she and her husband were planning, Fortin didn’t reveal any concrete plans.
“We’ll take the time to dream, but now maybe our dreams can come true,” she said.
