Lucky in Love Valentine’s Day Lottery Winners

Many of us dream of being both lucky in love and lucky in the lottery, some people may get nothing of these, some people may get one or the other, but a lucky few get both. Here are some heartwarming tales of lucky-in-love Valentine’s Day lottery winners. If you’re one of those who think that a lottery ticket is a bad idea for a Valentine’s Day gift, read on to change your mind.

Cynthia and Don Holmes

Cynthia Holmes of Boone, Iowa spoke to Lottery officials in the state and laughingly said that she had initially been very unimpressed with her husband’s choice of a $10 Casino Riches scratch-off ticket for Valentine’s Day present.

She joked, “My husband gave me a gift of a scratch and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s really expensive” However, her unimpressed mood didn’t last long when she scratched off the numbers and it revealed she’d won $100,000

She said that at first the win didn’t sink in properly and it was only when she scanned the ticket at the official lottery headquarters that what had actually happened hit her! Speaking afterward she said “[The machine] went, ‘Woo hoo!’ And I’m like – my hands started shaking and like butterflies in my stomach, It is still sinking in.”

Cynthia’s husband Don, said “I knew she was a winner. I thought it would just be $100 but it turned out to be $100,000.”

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The Holmes have said they plan to use the money to pay off the mortgage and the car payments.

Cynthia and Don aren’t the only couples who struck it rich around February 14th. Here are some other lucky in-love lottery winners.

Rodney and Brenda Reed

Rodney Reed’s wife Brenda was trying to figure out what to get her husband for Valentine’s Day – a conundrum many couples face!

In the end, Brenda gave Rodney a $1 Scratchers® ticket from the California Lottery’s newest game – California Lucky for Life. It turned out to be the best gift she could have given him.

She had won a free ticket to a Scratchers game she purchased the previous week and decided that she’d give the ticket to her husband as his valentine’s gift.

She went to a local convenience store and picked up a $1 California Lucky for Life Scratchers ticket. Rodney picks up the story and says: “After she bought it, she walked outside and felt compelled to see if she won me anything or not. Brenda scratched the ticket, saw it was a winner, and then had to ask the retailer “is this for real?” Brenda rang Rodney and told him the news and asked if he could come home. Rodney told his boss, he had a family emergency and left his security job for the day.

The couple hasn’t yet decided how to take their money, and whether to opt for the lump sum or take a weekly payment. In total, after tax, they could take home $375,000 which they say will pay off their bills, and cars and enable the whole family to have a luxury vacation.

Gerry and Lisa Cannings

Perhaps we’ve saved the biggest Valentine’s Day winners’ story till the last.

Gerry Cannings, 63, and his wife Lisa, 48, received the best Valentine’s Day present ever when they discovered their huge win on February 14th, 2016. The couple had scooped a winning ticket of £32 million on the National Lottery.

The couple was having their house decorated at the time and Gerry kept the ticket in his wallet and went about his daily business until the work was complete on the house. “It’s just the way we are – we don’t really worry about things or make a drama. The ticket stayed in my wallet with me all the time, except when I went to play golf. While I was playing I took it out and put it in a drawer at home and told Lisa where it was”

Lisa, his wife continues the story, saying “I know it sounds mad, but we had a guy in to paint the whole house. We’d been planning it for ages and had packed everything into boxes. We had dust sheets everywhere and literally didn’t have anywhere for people to sit. We just thought it would be easier to wait, although it did mean that Gerry had to carry around the winning ticket in his wallet all week.”

It’s a good job the ticket was safe, as Lottery rules mean that if the couple had lost the winning ticket they would have had a further six-month wait for the prize to be confirmed!

They bought the winning ticket during a visit to Gerry’s father, Victor in Slough, Berks over Valentine’s weekend in 2016. Gerry popped out to buy the family some fish and chips and whilst doing so, also bought a lottery ticket. He checked the tickets on Valentine’s Day morning and found they’d won. The moment he realized he was a winner, he said: “I double-checked it, reading it forwards and backward. Once I had checked the numbers three or four times I said: “Oh dear, I think I’ve won the lottery.”

Lisa added: “I was getting dressed in the bedroom and Gerry came in and said ‘what would you say if I told you we had won £32.5million? I saw a twinkle in his eye and thought he was telling me a joke.”

Despite becoming multi-millionaires the couple, who have been married 13 years, continued with their day as usual. They even did their household chores. The only thing that changed was that Lisa decided to ring into school sick – though she admitted it wasn’t a lie as she actually did feel pretty sick all day!

They say they will not let money affect how they live their lives. Lisa said she might give up her teaching job, but they still want to lead as normal a life as possible.

In fact, they have also said they don’t want it to affect the lives of their children or stepchildren and still want to teach them the value of money so they do not become spoilt brats – an admirable stance.