Lucky local lotto winners
When the announcement came that the winning ticket for the $55 million Lotto Max draw had been purchased in Sherbrooke, residents spent the weekend wondering who the lucky winner could be. Mystery solved.
Waterville resident Anne-marie Francis beat the 1 in 28,633,528 odds to win the massive jackpot.
By extension, Provigo in Lennoxville, where Francis bought the ticket on Friday, was also a winner, receiving $550,000 (one per cent of the take).
“Of course I recognize them,” said Provigo owner Robert Lafond, when a photo of Francis and her husband Ian Warcup was released on Monday afternoon announcing they were the winners.
“They’re good customers, they are in the store quite often,” he said, happy to discover the winning ticket belonged to
people from the community. Lafond said it wasn’t until noon on Monday that he received a call from Lotto Quebec notifying him that the winning ticket had come from his store. “I was at home having lunch,” he said. “You always hope it’s going to happen to you,” Lafond commented, after 30 years in the business, owning the Lennoxville Provigo for the last seven.
When asked what he plans to with his one per cent, Lafond said he was still in shock.
“I’ll keep investing in the store for the future,” he said, without any specific plans at the moment.
When The Record asked if Lafond expected to see Francis and Warcup in Provigo tomorrow for a grocery run, he laughed “I have no idea. They are probably in shock too. But if they come in, I will definitely shake their hands and congratulate them,” he said.
Lotto Quebec media relations told The Record that Francis and Warcup answered brief questions at the Monday press conference announcing the $55 million win, but declined media interviews.
According to information provided by Lotto Quebec, Francis realized she had the winning ticket on June 3, one day after the draw.
After rechecking the winning numbers on the Lotto Quebec website ‘at least 1,000 times’, Francis told her husband, who was outside cleaning the pool at the time.
Excited by the win, Warcup still went in to work on Monday morning.
According to Lotto Quebec, following the win, Francis and her husband plan to retire.
The Record reached out to acquaintances of Francis and Warcup to learn more about the lucky lotto winners.
“She’s an awesome golfer,” said Waterville resident Reverend Mead Baldwin, “does that help?”
In all seriousness, Baldwin described the couple as out and about and very involved in their community. Francis had served as a municipal councillor and Warcup was involved with softball coaching, Baldwin said.
He added that Francis is known for her big smile and upbeat, positive facebook posts.
While he agreed winning $55 million would mean big changes for Francis and Warcup, Baldwin said “knowing them, it will be in a positive way. They are a very stable, centred couple,” Baldwin said.