LOWER TRURO – "Couldn't happen to a nicer couple.
Such was the reaction of Dianne Hayman to news that her next-door neighbours – Allen and Violet Large – were the lucky winners in last week's $11.2 million 6/49 draw.
The retired Lower Truro couple picked up their winnings at Atlantic Lottery headquarters in Moncton Wednesday, keeping area residents guessing for a week as to who had won. But despite their major windfall, both say their success will not change their lives.
"Money isn't everything," Allen told the Truro Daily News within moments of arriving home from picking up his winnings. "What it means to me, it means family first."
Violet has two brothers and a sister who live local while Allen has two daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren in Ontario, two brothers in Truro and another in Ottawa.
After their family is looked after, the couple said they will share their luck with their church, the new hospital, their local cemetery and other charities.
The couple said they purchase lottery tickets twice a week and their winning numbers came from the computerized Instant Pick in last Wednesday's draw.
Violet said she checked her numbers about 10 a.m. after calling Lottoland in the Truro Mall where the ticket was purchased. After successfully matching the first three numbers she declared to her husband that they had "won 10 bucks."
Her excitement started to build, however, when she finished checking the numbers and realized they had all come in.
"Oh my God," she said, of her exclamation to her husband, who was in the kitchen doing dishes.
"I said come and check these numbers."
She then called brother Elson Perry and asked him to pick up a print out of the winning numbers for further verification and then called her other brother, Willis, and asked him to check the numbers in the newspaper.
"We nearly had a fit," she said, when everything continued to check out. "We checked those numbers 50,000 times. So, then, we were afraid to say anything to anybody."
"We never informed anybody, not a damn soul (except for Violet's two brothers)," Allen added.
Their delay in coming forward started a guessing game in the community as to who the mysterious winners were until the couple decided yesterday morning it was time to cash in their ticket.
"We we're both free this morning so we said, 'OK, let's go,'" he said.
The most they had ever won before was $1,000 ON a scratch ticket aout 20 years ago.
Allen is originally from Malagash while Violet grew up in Economy. After spending 30 years in Ontario where Allen was a steel worker, the couple retired to Lower Truro in 1983.
And neighbour Hayman said she and her husband, Allan, were very pleased to learn who had cashed in on the $11,255,272.70 prize.
"My husband and I were just saying how nice it was that they had won," she said. "They're just excellent. They're always helping out in the community. They are just great neighbours and a nice couple."
It is great to see two people who are happy with their lives just the way they are!