Edmonton woman wins $21M Lotto 6/49
Running out of milk won an Edmonton woman $21 million.
Bogumila Mroczkowski bought her winning Lotto 6/49 quick pick ticket at a Shoppers Drug Mart while out on a milk run in April. It was a snap decision for Mroczkowski, who says she doesn't often buy lottery tickets.
"I buy when I think of it, and I thought of it when I went to the store to get milk," she said in a statement Monday.
When she scanned the winning ticket, she couldn't quite believe her eyes, even after checking it with her husband more than 20 times.
She sat on it for a few months — just to let it all sink in, she said.
Mroczkowski, 58, was given a cheque for $20,997,902.50 in St. Albert on Tuesday morning.
During the ceremony, she said she initially thought she might have won $2,000.
"And I went to check again and it was more than $2,000," she said. "And from that … disbelief. It was just incredible."
The audience applauded when Mroczkowski announced she has resigned her job after working for 26 years working in food services at Alberta Hospital.
She said she plans to use the windfall to help her family "and maybe do some travelling," perhaps to Alaska or Hawaii.
She said the shock of learning she had won millions took some time to sink in.
"It's not that easy," she said. "You think it's easy but in reality you're just … (in) shock. And you keep checking and the numbers are there, but you still are processing.
"Maybe when I start spending it's going to be real."
As for her husband, Eugene, she said: "I think he still doesn't believe it."
Mroczkowski isn't the only Albertan who got lucky with the lottery this month.
Fort McMurray'sJason Wheeler won $1 million earlier in July.
He said he will donate some of his winnings to the charities that helped his family in May, when the entire city was evacuated due to the wildfire.
