Canada Day 2022 will be a day Teresa Garden and Donna Smith will remember for a long time.
July 1 is the day the duo won $100,000 in the Lotto Max Encore draw, by matching six of seven numbers
Garden of Port Dover and Smith of Paris, ON, who met at work more than 30 years ago, have been playing the lottery together for about 15 years.
“I almost didn’t buy this ticket. I changed my mind at the last-minute right before the lottery terminal closed for the draw,” Garden told officials at the OLG Prize Centre. “I saw an email from OLG, but thought it was a scam, so I logged into my OLG account right away.”
Garden purchased the ticket online at olg.ca.
Smith said she thought her friend was pranking her when she informed her of their good fortune.
“I saw a text from Teresa and opened it to see a screenshot of the win – I thought she was pranking me for a second,” Smith said. “This is the most excitement I’ve ever felt from a cheque.”
Garden plans to buy a new vehicle with her share of the winnings while Smith uses her share to travel.