Would You Do the Same With Lottery Winnings??
Allen and Violet Large won the $11.2 million 6/49 draw. Harry Sullivan – Truro Daily News
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 about 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.”
Source: http://www.trurodaily.com/News/Local/2010-07-21/article-1600470/Lower-Truro-couple-say-lottery-win-wont-change-their-lives/1
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The retired Lower Truro couple Allen and Violet had won in lottery draw . What they did with their winnings of $11.2 million is amazing. They shared their winnings with family members and giving up to charities such church, the new hospital, their local cemetery and others. That’s a meaningful approach.
Quoted “Money isn’t everything,” “What it means to me, it means family first.”….. Agree with what Allen said.
If I have that winnings I would do the same too. Happiness is only real when shared. Happiness lies in the joy of helping, caring, and sharing with others .
Thank you Pastor Loh Seng Piow for this sharing.
Money is not everything in life.What is important is happiness within ,kindness,loving,caring and compassion at heart.
Such a nice compassionate couple Allen and Violet Large having won the lottery winnings had it shared out to full used,giving back to society.
They such a beautiful couple who are so helpful,always helping around in the community and are great neighbours too.They deserved the winnings as they are so generous in giving.
Thank you Pastor Loh Seng Piow for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this inspiring story. This couple have really pure heart and kindness in them. Before they hit the lottery, their reputation in their neighbourhood had always been kind and good people. When they hit the lottery, instead of using all the money for their own use it to help out around their communities. This is an example of compassion and selflessness. Money can be a powerful force to corrupt our mind and our values sometimes especially when they amount is so high. The couple can withstand the temptation of keeping the money all to themselves and use it for good is really inspiring.
I guess that is an exaggeration that the couple checked the number 50,000 times. 🙂 But it is certainly great to see that great ppl won this lottery and put these winnings into good use.
I have read many cases of people who lost their fortunes after windfalls. Money perhaps came too suddenly for them that they got lost in the process and hence did many undesirable things that eventually landed them in a poorer state.
I am guessing that many non-virtuous acts of human will start poping up when a windfall comes, aspects such as greed, selfishness.
I will surely give out these money to those in need. While money cannot solve many things, but they can help in many situations. There are many beings out there that need monetary aids, institutions such as animal shelters, hospitals, old age homes and orphanage. They need help to improve their lives. By doing so, we gain merits as well.
Yesterday, I had the fortunate to receive Dharma teaching from Rinpoche on alturism. He said that alturism is a quality we must develop in order to achieve Buddhahood, and developing generosity is the gateway to selflessness and ultimate happiness.
I rejoice for Allen and Violet for practicing generosity, and keep reminding us to be generous to others.
I think I would do the same but by using a different method. Besides just donating the money to different organizations, I will also keep part of the winnings to set up my own non-profit organizations. Through this method, I will be able to me more hands on and help those in need personally.
What a wonderful couple. They know that the true essence of life is not money. They are so generous as to share their winnings they had won from the scratch. They really do deserve every cent they have won. This couple teaches us to stop just focusing on money, money, money. We should be focusing on helping others.
How wonderful and generous of this couple. Instead of indulging into worldly desires, Allen and Violet Large decided to share their winnings with their loved ones and the communities. They deserve to win!
If we have had the opportunity or luck to be able to strike a Big Lottery not everybody would have the same thinking. To some people who have been poor all their lives and has been yearning to do the things during the time when they have no money. The first thought would be to indulge in these things first. But on the other hand if you already have the habituation of generosity and giving you would automatically give. Generosity and giving need not be in the form of cash only. The thought that Allen and Violet would have, would be to help others. So they have decided to share their winnings with relatives and friends and communities. And that shows everyone their big heart and generosity.
Wonderful attitude towards money to be used to help others!
How wonderful of them – to remain unshaken in their belief that money isn’t everything; and so clear-mindedly remembering others’ needs, not overwhelmed by greed! ~Not many of can be so lucky though. However lets not wait until we win lotteries before making offerings and donations meaningfully, within our means.
This is fantastic news. It’s great to see that winning such a massive fortune has made no difference to the couple’s outlook on what’s really important in life. It’s also wonderful how they are using their new-found wealth to benefit many others. I hope they also remember to treat themselves to some nice things – people with such kind-heartedness and compassion deserve to enjoy their lives as well as the opportunity to help and support others within their community.
So many people think that having lots of money automatically brings happiness, but of course that’s not true; if it were, every rich person would be extremely happy, which isn’t the case at all.
Generosity can be expressed in so many ways other than financially, but when we are in a position to selflessly give in this way it not only greatly benefits the recipient, but it also benefits us tremendously.
Mr and Mrs Large are a shining example of true generosity. How easy it would have been for them to travel the world and live in endless indulgence, but instead they focus on sharing their great fortune with those around them. I hope they enjoy lots of happiness.
Kind regards,
Sandy