![Lottery winner said daughter was in tears, asked her to "finally retire"](https://dpdajlq3ew794.cloudfront.net/20221129131230/lottery-76.jpg?format=auto&width=1920)
An Ontario woman is one step closer to retirement after winning the lottery.
Mary Wray is a St. Thomas resident and has two children and three grandchildren.
“I’ve been playing the lottery for at least 10 years,” she said. “I mostly play Instant games.”
As she often did, she picked an Instant game — this time Cash Words — and started playing her ticket. What she uncovered made her pause.
“I was playing my ticket when I saw I uncovered all the words and thought, ‘This can’t be right!'” she recalled.
So she pulled up the OLG App on her phone to scan the ticket.
“I couldn’t believe when I saw ‘Big Winner,'” she said.
![](https://images.dailyhive.com/20221129132059/Cah-Word_IG2318_75000.00_Mary-Wray-of-St.Thomas-2-e1669756893576.png)
Mary Wray/OLG
Wray had won the top prize in the Instant Cash Words game and was now $75,000 richer. It’s her first major win.
When she told her daughter the news the next day, she said that her daughter was overwhelmed and, in tears, kept telling her to “use the money to finally retire.”
The win definitely puts Wray a step closer to her retirement goals and said she’ll be putting some away for retirement. While at the OLG Prize Centre to pick up her cheque, she shared that she’ll also be using the money to pay off some bills and complete some home renovations.
“I am in disbelief,” she said.
The winning ticket was purchased at Young Convenience on Wellington Street in St. Thomas.