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Friday the 13th may not be viewed as the luckiest
day of the year for most people, but it was
certainly favourable for UK National Lottery
players Irene and Ronald Jones, who scooped
a £9.3 million half-share of the recent
triple rollover Lotto jackpot with a ticket
they purchased that day.
It wasn't lucky all day long, however. Earlier,
the retired couple from Bilston had seen a mirror
fall from their living room wall and smash on
the floor. According to superstition, that alone
should have brought seven years of bad luck.
But it didn't stop optimists Irene and Ronald
from going out to buy their Lotto ticket.
Although the couple were together when they
checked their numbers and could rely on each
other to verify the win, they still found the
good news hard to accept. In fact, they had
to telephone their daughter for a third opinion!
"I was watching the television when I
suddenly thought I'd better check our numbers,"
Irene explained. "Ronald put Teletext on
and we sat there counting the six winning numbers
- again and again - we just could not believe
it. I then phoned my daughter Lynn to tell her
and ask her to come around to check the ticket,
but it was late and she said she'd pop round
in the morning."
Would you be patient enough to wait for a third
opinion? Probably not, and neither was Irene…
"The next morning I couldn't wait for
Lynn so I phoned Camelot before she had arrived,"
she said. " Now I'm just wondering how
to spend the money. The one thing for sure is
that we are going to take our time and ensure
all our loved ones are taken care of."
One thing that the couple have already decided
to invest in is a new dream bungalow. This is
something they have wanted for many years, and
now, thanks to a great stroke of good luck on
Friday 13th, it's something they can obtain
with ease.
Talking about the subject of superstition and
the events of that day, Irene says, "The
funniest thing about it all is that I bought
the ticket on Friday 13th, after the mirror
in the living room had fallen off the wall and
smashed into a million pieces. We have been
playing with the same numbers since the lottery
began - as we are quite superstitious - but
after recent events I am going to be less so,
as our luck has definitely changed for the better."
19 October 2006
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