'Working poor' couple from tiny Alberta hamlet win $50M lottery

A very shy man from a tiny Alberta hamlet made his wife blush and a room full of people laugh Thursday when asked why he was in the Mini Mart that day.

"We had to go get birth control," said Raymond Scott, glancing at his wife, Sheena.

Then he chuckled, and everyone joined in.

It was there, while his wife was in the back of the M&M Mini Mart, that Scott checked his Lotto Max tickets and discovered he had just won $50 million.

"Raymond, I've got to tell you," said Bill Robinson, president of the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission. "I've been doing this a long time. That's the first time I've ever heard that line."

A prize of that size would change anyone's life.

And the Scotts, perhaps more than most, were due for some good luck.

"I just actually had surgery," Raymond said, "actually a year ago today. For cancer stuff."

He didn't elaborate. But he did talkabout a life filled with struggles.

"We were both kind of like the working poor our wholes lives," he said.

The couple lives in Fort Kent, Alta., a hamlet of 220 people about 250 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

Scott, 38, said he bought the Lotto Max tickets for the Aug. 7 draw in nearby Ardmore.

He said his first job was working at the local gas station. When he graduated high school in 1995, his parents bought the station. He worked there and lived at home.

His father died in 1998. The kids moved away and left mom to run the gas station.

'A struggle for our whole family'

"It's been a struggle for our whole family," he said. "Generations before me, too."

For the last few years, he has managed a trucking company, a job he plans to keep "for a couple more months."

Their first plan for the money is to buy an acreage once owned by Sheena's grandfather, so they can "get it back in the family."

They also plan to reconnect with relatives and help out friends.

"Driving trucks I was always gone," he said. "Busy. I've kind of lost touch with my side of the family."

Seated before the media at the requisite news conference, Raymond wore a black ball cap and a nervous smile. Sheena, 27, mostly looked scared.

But Raymond overcame his nerves and seemed to enjoy making reporters laugh.

Asked if the money has changed him, he said: "She says I've changed, but I don't know."

Then, more seriously, he said: "Things are going to change, but not for the worse."

The Scotts got married just over a year ago. They've yet to take a honeymoon, because until now they couldn't afford one.

Next weekend, they plan to fly to Torontoto take in a Blue Jays games.

And, Raymond allowed, "to meet some investors."