IROQUOIS FALLS - Talk about beginners' luck! An Iroquois Falls couple is $70 million richer, a jackpot won on the first lottery ticket Kyle Murray ever bought.
Just days before hitting the massive jackpot, Jennifer Stuart-Flynn and Kyle Murray had welcomed a new baby into the family.
Stuart-Flynn had a high-risk pregnancy and delivered the baby in Toronto. They had just returned home and Murray was in Timmins to pick his mom up at the airport when Stuart-Flynn texted to ask him to buy a Lotto Max ticket because the jackpot had hit $70 million, said Ontario Lottery and Gaming (OLG) in a news release.
Murray is originally from the United States. While he's lived and worked in Canada for several years, the OLG said he asked the staff member at the Esso on Algonquin Boulevard for help because he hadn't bought a lottery ticket in Canada. He walked away with his first Lotto Max and Lotto 6/49 tickets with encore.
After the Aug. 20 draw, OLG issued an alert that the $70-million ticket had been sold in the Timiskaming/Cochrane area.
Stuart-Flynn took the tickets off the fridge and was eating cereal when she scanned the ticket.
“I scanned the ticket on the OLG App and heard the ‘Winner/Gagnant’ win tone,” she said in the news release. “I was in shock and not processing what was happening, so I shut down the OLG App and reopened it. I checked the ticket again and heard the same thing. That’s when I called out to Kyle!”
Murray works from home in the financial technology industry. He was busy when heard his name called and tuned in when he heard that she thought they'd won.
“I looked at her phone and read ‘$70 million winner,’ but I was trying to figure out if it was displaying the maximum prize or if we actually won $70 million. I felt light-headed and that sensation ran through my whole body," he said.
To quietly celebrate, the couple took Murray's mom out to a local restaurant.
“We wanted to shout the news, but we knew that in our small town, this type of news would travel very fast. We had to be careful not to spill the beans throughout the entire dinner,” she said.
The couple, according to OLG, is carefully considering what to do with the windfall.
Stuart-Flynn already has some ideas, though.
When she's dreamed about winning the lottery, buying her sister a new house has always been at the top of the list.
“My sister is the most kind, loving, and generous person in the world, so I want to make sure she is taken care of,” she said.
The couple also plans to start planting seeds to live their dream life.
“We want to buy some land to set up a little farm with chickens and a highland cow. We hope it will be a place where the kids can have fun and will want to return to as they get older,” Murray said.
While picking up their winnings, they also shared what the past couple of years have been like.
“The last few years have been a struggle, and everything we did was to make a better life for the kids," she said.
“I realize my kids are going to have a much better life than I had and that makes me the most emotional. They are set and won’t have to wonder or worry about anything anymore.”
The next Lotto Max draw on Tuesday, Sept. 17, is the highest-ever jackpot, at $80 million.
