Date Night Tradition Credited for $34 Million Lotto Win
Posted on: August 18, 2025, 11:07h.
Last updated on: August 18, 2025, 11:46h.
- Life-changing $34 million lotto win for Ontario couple
- New dream home, cross-Canada trip, and diamond ring among wish-list items
An Ontario couple has turned a date night tradition into a $34 million lottery score.
According to Joe and Lise Menard of Cache Bay, Ontario, located on the north shore of Lake Nipissing in the northern part of the province, Friday night has always been date night during their 36 years of marriage.
That weekly tradition usually involves dinner out somewhere. It also involves a stop at a store to buy their weekly lottery tickets.
This time out, they stopped at Arrowhead Gas Bar on Nipissing First Nation, near North Bay, to buy their tickets, and Lise remembered they still had some older lottery tickets in her purse that they hadn’t checked.
Vintage Car Purchase
“When I went in to pay for the gas, I asked the clerk to check the tickets,” said Joe. “After seeing they weren’t winners, the clerk asked if I wanted to replay them. I usually get new tickets using Quick Pick, but this time I replayed the old ones.”
When I heard on the news that the LOTTO 6/49 Gold Ball ticket was sold in Northern Ontario, I had a premonition that we had the winning ticket,” he continued. “It wasn’t until later that evening that Lise checked the tickets on her phone with the OLG [Ontario Lottery and Gaming] app.”
The couple won the $34 million jackpot in the LOTTO 6/49 Gold Ball draw on June 21, 2025.
Lise checked the tickets on her phone with the OLG app later that evening and said she “almost had a heart attack.”
Taking Care of the Kids
“I kept saying ‘Joe! Joe! Joe!’ At first, he thought we had won $34,000, and I kept telling him to look at all the zeros!” she said.
Where does the couple go from here? Joe and Lise met when Joe took her to the high school prom. Since then, they have raised a family and worked hard all their lives, while living frugally.
This lottery win puts an end to having to save pennies.
“The big thing for us was to take care of the kids the best way we can,” said an emotional Lise. “Now my kids will be taken care of — no more worries. When someone needs something, we will be there to help.”
Couple Thought They Had Won $34K
Travelling across Canada, coast to coast, stopping at all of the country’s major cities, is a dream they will now fulfill.
I’ve always wanted to give her a dream home, and now she’s going to get it,” Joe said.
Lise says there’s one very special thing she wants in that new dream home.
“I’ve always dreamed of having a big harvest table so we can all sit together for family meals and entertain more during the holidays,” she said. “No more sitting all over the house — now we’ll be all together.”
Real Diamond Ring
Joe also likes to work on vintage cars, and said he’ll now be buying a hot rod car, something he has wanted since he was 16. He’ll also be buying his wife a real diamond ring, to replace the fake one she wears, a joke gift from their 15th wedding anniversary (crafted from a steel nut welded onto a big novelty crystal), a longtime promise he made.
Family bond is at the core of who they are, Lise said.
“Joe’s favourite saying is ‘What Momma wants, Momma gets.’ Even though we didn’t have much, he’s always given me what I wanted and has never shied away,” she said. “He’s my best friend, and he will always be.”
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