Lottery win bittersweet for couple

Sunday, 5 July 2015

Winning a house in a Heart Foundation Lottery has brought mixed emotions to a Marlborough couple, whose win came less than three weeks after the sudden death of their son. 

Graeme and Irene Percy received a letter on Saturday telling them they had won a fully-furnished, four-bedroom home worth more than $500,000 in the town of Kinloch beside Lake Taupo.

The long-time Blenheim residents knew last Tuesday a Blenheim ticket had won the lottery draw, which is held every three or four months. Graeme thought he recognised their ticket number on the website.

The Percys were also notified by phone that they were the winners, but as they had deleted the email with the number on it, they could not be absolutely certain it was them until a confirmation letter arrived in the mail. 

'We thought [the phone call] might be a hoax,' Graeme said. 

The win had brought 'mixed emotions', he said. They were still mourning their son's loss, but they were 'elated' to win and pleased something good had happened.

They had had a difficult time in the last few weeks as Irene had also cracked her shoulder, and was only halfway to recovery. 

It had not really sunk in, Irene said. 

'We're still sort of going through what to do.' 

For 10 years they had been supporting the Heart Foundation by auto-buying tickets, starting from the time Graeme went through heart problems of his own and began to receive information about the foundation. 

They saw it as a donation, never thinking they would win. 

Graeme said the organisation did a 'tremendous' job, and he and Irene would continue to buy the tickets.  If the foundation had been around when his mother was suffering from heart problems the consequences for her might not have been as severe, he said. 

By coincidence the house they have won has the same street number as their address in Blenheim. They had no idea what they would do with the house, but options included keeping it as a holiday home for their family and friends, or maybe selling it. 

With two children and six grandchildren still living in Marlborough, and Irene enjoying her job, they were not thinking of moving away. Graeme said Blenheim had a 'wonderful community' and they would be 'there for a lifetime'.

They had both always believed in getting involved in the community and in helping those worse off than them, and in turn they said they had received wonderful support from people after the loss of their son, he said. 

'The support the community has given us in the last three weeks has been outstanding, it has been incredible.

'In Blenheim there are so many people doing so much to help each other. It's a great place.'  

In the next 10 days there was paperwork to be sorted out, and they would have to travel to the North Island at some point to be formally presented with the keys, Graeme said. 

'We'll have to talk to them about what we do and where we go next,' Irene said.