I’m not looking for any of my sister’s lotto cash, but if she wants to pay my mortgage...
‘Frances’s €130m win is life-changing – but it won’t change our loving family’
‘The win couldn’t have happened to a nicer sister!’
ANN FLOYD , the sister of EuroMillions winner Frances Connolly, opens her door with a smile. The mother of three invited the Irish Daily Mail into her home in Northern Ireland to explain that her life will remain the same despite her sister winning €130million in the EuroMillions draw on New Year’s Day.
Returning home from her local hairdresser’s, wearing her signature red frame glasses, Ann shared her ‘delight’ for her sister Frances and brother-in-law Patrick who scooped the top prize.
Sitting on the sofa in her family home, the 51-year-old says that she doesn’t know if she will become a millionaire as result of the win but the experience will be ‘life-changing’.
‘We have no idea if we will be one of the millionaires. We wouldn’t expect it, but whatever Frances does it’s going to be life-changing for us. It will change our life but it won’t change the people we are,’ she says.
Ann lives with her husband, Laurence, on a quiet country road in Spamount in western Tyrone, very close to the border with Donegal. The couple have three children: daughters Louise and Amy, son Seán and two grandsons, Zack and Luca.
The family own the local plant hire business.
‘The win couldn’t have happened to a better, nicer sister. I couldn’t believe it when Frances rang me. It’s truly like a dream. Frances gave me a quick ring on the Thursday morning and said, “Guess what? I’ve won the EuroMillions”.’
Ann sat in disbelief on her sofa saying: ‘I don’t believe you Frances, you’re lying.’
‘Frances replied, “I’m not. I’ve won the jackpot”.’
Ann is keen to stress that she doesn’t expect her sister to make her a millionaire, but if she is lucky to be one of the 50 people on Frances’s list, then she will be more than happy with what she gets.
‘It’s a life-changing experience for Frances and Patrick,’ she said. ‘I spoke to them yesterday, but I didn’t ask them where they were. I’m leaving them to their own devices now until the dust settles, but I can only wish them a lifetime of health and happiness – what they have been enjoying up until now.
‘We are a close family and have always looked out for one another. We all cared for my mother Kathleen together, before her death last Christmas. This was our first Christmas without Mammy and it was tough.’
Pointing to a chair and a footstool in the living room, Ann pauses: ‘This was Mammy’s chair when she used to come and stay here. When I had the living room done up recently, I had it [re-upholstered] as I didn’t want to get rid of it.
‘If Mammy had to be still alive, she would have been the first one to be cheering and throwing her hands up in the air. I think Mammy was watching over us and brought Frances and Patrick all the good luck on New Year’s Day,’ she says.
Ann reflects that she wished her mother had still been alive to share in the joy.
‘Mummy loved going on holidays to Bundoran, Co. Donegal, and to play
‘I’m still going to be buying my £12.50 jumpers’
the slot machines. She got great excitement out of the thrill of seeing would she win.’
‘I think if she had been here now, Frances would have to get her an apartment down by the sea and keep supplying the coins for Mammy – and she would too, that’s the kind of person Frances is,’ she added.
‘Frances is so generous and she always has been. If Frances only had a tenner and you said you needed a fiver, she’d give it to you and do without it herself. That’s the kind of woman she is.
‘She’s an incredibly generous, selfless person and always has been since we were children.’
Patrick and Frances, who live in Moira, Co. Down, revealed at a press conference last week that they have written a list of 50 family and friends to share their good fortune with – none of whom have been told of their imminent change in circumstances.
‘I’d say when she heard she’d won, she had the pen and paper out straight away and was making that list. That, to Frances, is winning the lotto: being able to help other people.’
In the week since being revealed as the winner, Frances has already saved another sister’s home from sale. Sharon Bordessa put her house on the market in 2017 with the sale due to be completed in the coming weeks.
However, Frances stepped in to save the home.
Speaking earlier this week, Sharon said: ‘I just found out on Thursday morning.
‘Frances phoned me and said, “Are you sitting down?”
‘She said she had some good news: “Me and Paddy have won the EuroMillions and you don’t have to sell your house”,’ Ann recalls.
Going about her day-to-day chores at her home, Ann told the Mail: ‘It’s great news and a relief for our sister Sharon. She can now go back to the house she loves.
‘If I could pay off my mortgage, it would be a big help, but it’s Frances’s money and, as I said, I don’t expect anything. My life isn’t going to change. If I am given money, it will certainly make life a little easier, but it won’t change the people we are.
‘Look, I did buy steak for dinner this evening, and I don’t even eat steak but I just thought: “What the hell?”
‘But, being serious, I’m still going to be buying my £12.50 jumper in Asda. I’m not going to be splashing any cash. I don’t think any of us will.
‘We are normal people and that’s it. Money doesn’t buy you the happiness we all have.’
The Connollys scooped £114,969,775.70 on New Year’s Day, to become the UK’s fourth biggest lottery winners.
‘Frances always helped me and I helped her growing up and that’s the way our family has always been,’ Ann told the Mail. ‘My brother lives in Australia and he came over to see Mummy. When we were all together, we said that if one of us was lucky enough to win a large amount of money, everyone else would be sorted for life.
‘My brother is always telling us to go visit him in Australia, but we are homebirds. I won’t be moving house or anything. When I leave this house it will be in a box.’
Since Frances won the money, Ann has only had one brief phone conversation with her sister and she didn’t ask where in the world she is.
‘I honestly couldn’t tell you where she is,’ said Ann. ‘I didn’t ask her and she didn’t tell me. The world is Frances’s oyster and she could be anywhere in the world.
‘They were planning to move back to the UK as Patrick had a new job. Frances herself had a job interview lined up in the UK, so she was planning on a return to work. I think that’s probably gone out the window.’
When asked to describe her sister, Ann smiles: ‘I can honestly tell you that all my brothers and sisters are my best friends. We always talked and were close.
‘Frances is bubbly and friendly and a great mother and grandmother. She loves her kids and grandkids.
‘Frances is a highly educated woman and does degrees for fun at this stage. She will probably go back and study.
‘When she comes to stay here with me, and if she has forgotten her book, she will ask me: “Have you anything to read?”, but she never likes my reading choices. But that’s sisters.’
Preparing the wood to light the fire in the living room of her cosy family home, Ann notes that life goes on.
‘Frances’s daughter Katrina rents her home, so perhaps Frances will buy this for her, but they don’t like the limelight,’ said Ann.
‘I think there will be a big family celebration down the line. There will probably be a big family meal but you’re more likely to see us drinking Diet Coke instead of champagne. Frances doesn’t drink and neither do I.
‘The reason Frances came forward publicly as the winner is because she didn’t want to live a lie and pretend.
‘It would have meant that we would have all had to lie about it and that’s not who we are.
‘Frances has nothing to hide and neither do we. If you bought something, people would question. You want to be allowed celebrate.’
As she stands up from the sofa, Ann, who had just come from the hairdressers, says: ‘I just decided to get the hair done in case anyone called around.
‘But, now it’s time to light the fire and get that steak on.
‘Who knows what the future holds? I’d be happy with a week in Spain in the sun.’