Lisa Osmond is finally counting her blessings.
Last week she bought a $5 Big Spin scratch ticket at Mike’s Mart on Huntsville’s Main Street. It was a nice sunny day and she and her partner Stephen decided to take the dogs for a walk at the beach. They sat at a picnic table and Osmond decided to scratch her ticket. One of the numbers was 31 and her partner’s birthday falls on that number and while she was scratching he said “oh, you’ll win on that one,” she recalled. She scratched all the numbers and to her amazement she actually did win on the number 31, but hadn’t yet scratched the prize. Once she did she said she couldn’t see it very well so she passed the ticket to her partner, who informed her that she had just won $100,000. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
The pair got the dogs, ran back to the car and headed straight to the Mike’s Mart, which had sold her the lucky ticket. Her partner tried to scan it at the self-scan kiosk, but it wouldn’t scan so he took it to the counter.
“He said to the guy at the cash register ‘it’s a big winner. It’s a $100,000 winner’ and he didn’t really believe him. So anyway, he scanned it and it shut everything down and then OLG (Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation) phones to speak to us,” said Osmond. They had to go to Toronto twice before a cheque was issued and “the rest is history,” she said.
Osmond is a nurse at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare. The past year has been tough for her with the death of both of her parents just three weeks apart. She said she’s looking forward to taking a little trip somewhere for some much-needed rest and relaxation, paying off bills and hopefully living stress free for a while.
She thinks her mom might have had a hand in the winning ticket. Her mom loved going to Casino Rama and Osmond would take her. When she was in palliative care Osmond joked with her saying that if she could do something for her in the after-life, that perhaps she could help her win at the casino. Osmond recalled her mother saying that she’d do what she could, followed by a chuckle. It was their little joke.
“I’m sure she had her hands in this, for sure,” said Osmond with a grin. Asked if she had yet made any purchases with the cash she won, she said she had purchased a side-by-side with a plow so her partner wouldn’t have to snow-blow the driveway this winter.
She said she continues to play scratch tickets but “within reason. Gamble within your means,” she advised.
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Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Lisa deserves this luck