"I'm in church, I can't scream": Lottery player becomes instant millionaire
Decades of playing the lottery has finally paid off for one woman who bought a winning ticket that led to a life-changing win.
Sharon Gallup, who lives in Moncton, New Brunswick, has played the lottery for over 30 years and has always dreamed of the excitement surrounding a big lotto win. Little did she know that that day would eventually come.
Gallup recalled being overwhelmed to discover that she had won the White Ball prize in the May 25 draw after purchasing a Lotto 6/49 ticket on alc.ca — she was now $1 million richer. But she wasn’t the only one excited — it turned out that everyone else was far more excited than the winner.
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“I was shocked; I counted the zeros a couple of times before I called somewhere here at Atlantic Lottery and spoke with a nice young man who was very excited,” Gallup recalled.
“He’s a new employee, and he said, ‘I want to make sure I get everything right,’ and I said, ‘Well, Nick, I want you to get everything right too, so let’s just both calm down and take a breath and I’ll let you do what you need to do.”
Once she had set up an appointment to process and claim her winnings at Atlantic Lottery’s head office in Moncton, she decided to share the news with her daughters.
“I called my youngest daughter, and she yelled quite loudly in my ear; she could barely believe what I was telling her,” said Gallup. “Then I called my other who was in church, but I didn’t realize it, so she was whispering to me, ‘I’m in church, I can’t scream,’ so we had quite the conversation once she was finally free.”
Along with her daughters, Gallup headed to the Atlantic Lottery office to process her win, but apparently, even strangers were eager to join in the excitement.
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“We had parked in one of the winner’s parking spots in the lot, and a pedestrian was walking by,” Gallup recalled. “When they saw us there, they stopped and clapped. A total stranger.”
With $1 million in her bank account, she said she’ll use the money to buy a new vehicle. However, her main priority is helping her family, and she will share her winnings with her daughters and grandchildren. Most importantly, the money allows her more freedom to do what she wants.
Now that the reality of her win has finally sunk in, Gallup said, “I could really cry now because it really is quite overwhelming. You dream of this day; every time you buy a ticket, you dream, and now it’s here.”
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