A part-time supermarket cashier and occasional lottery ticket buyer choked back tears Monday as she pondered how her bank balance had gone from under $100 to more than $20-million with the luck of the draw.
An overwhelmed Bonnie Preece, 49, of London, Ont., flanked by her husband, parents and sisters, collected half of Saturday's Lotto 6-49 jackpot.
"For me, I can't grasp this kind of money," she said, struggling for words. "My savings account was $80.17; I think it's going to be a little bit more than that now."
Ms. Preece was one of two winning ticket holders for Saturday's $42.2-million draw. The other was sold in Edmonton but it was not immediately known who bought it.
Although she seldom played the lottery, she was moved by the size of the jackpot to plunk down two toonies at the store across from the No Frills, where she's been a cashier for the past five years.
Ms. Preece chose computer-generated numbers for her two tickets.
She initially thought she had only three of the needed six numbers. On Sunday morning, however, after a phone call to her sister, she knew she had hit it big.
"I told her, 'Sit down and take a coffee,' " husband William Rollings, 57, said, brushing a tear from her eye as her head poked above the oversize novelty cheque that she clutched as if her life depended on it. "It was euphoria after that."
She opted not to go in for her shift Sunday.
Ms. Preece said she was forced to declare bankruptcy a few years ago after her first marriage ended. She couldn't even get a credit card.
Asked whether she had a message for her ex, she said simply: "Sucks to be you."
It's been a struggle to earn every dollar, she said, scrounging as many extra hours at work as she could.
The owner of the store, Gary Coyle, praised her as a wonderful community-minded woman who worked with seniors and loved animals.
No Frills, where she dropped off treats for colleagues Monday morning, has agreed to keep her on its payroll until she decides whether she will be returning to work, a job that paid $12.30 an hour.
"I'll probably still shop there - I like my specials," she said.
However, she also said she had plans to travel, invest, help her family and friends, and finally buy a car. "I don't want to take the bus any more."
Ms. Preece said she was heading straight home to her rented two-bedroom apartment she moved to in January to let her two dogs out. They will be getting a yard soon, she joked.
The Canadian record for a Lotto 6-49 prize is $54.3-million won in 2005 by 17 people in Camrose, Alta. The biggest single ticket win in Ontario was $40.5-million in 2008.
The Canadian Press