Calm and Grounded, Despite the Millions

By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: Feb. 2, 2013

They didn’t buy a fancy car, or a brand new home. They didn’t go on a holiday to an exotic destination.

More than a year after they won the lotto 6/49 and cashed $3.5 million, the Everettes say they remain the same people they were before the big cash flooded their lives.

For the most part, at least.

And they would like to tell you that money, lots of it, has made their life easy, but not happier.

“I’m as happy as I was before,” says Marlene Everett, who claimed the lottery last year in September.

Her husband, Wilf Everett, shares the same sentiment.

“It helps you pay the bills, but it doesn’t make you happier,” he says.

Like the millions who play every day, the Everettes took their chances last year at the local Walmart.

Wilf has always put this money on ‘Set for Life’, which gives the winner $1,000 every week for 25 years.

Marlene Everett, however, thought of it as wastage of time and money. But she had always nurtured a dream.

It was Marlene’s dream to set her two daughters, Tammy and Candace, for life.

“I didn’t want my daughters to struggle,” she says.

That dream took on a new urgency after her husband’s accident.

Wilf was a welder at Interfor when an accident left him disabled for life. Marlene worked as a first aid attendant at that time in Whistler, but also had to work as a primary care giver for Wilf.

Last year, at the prodding of her family and the clerk at Walmart, she bought a jumbo pack of lotto 6/49 tickets.

Even after her big win, Marlene still likes to buy the lotto tickets once in a while.

“$3.3 million isn’t really a lot of money when you really think about it,” she says, laughing.

That large sum can seem particularly small when you are trying to help out friends and family.

In the last one year, Marlene has helped both her daughters with $500,000, which enabled them to buy new cars and new homes.

Her husband has paid all his pending bills, and invested the money in mutual funds, which gives him a small, but steady monthly return.

The family also took a trip to Winnipeg, where Marlene helped out her brother and her sister. She has helped another sister in Surrey buy a new truck.

She sometimes gets calls for donations, and banks call her often to deposit her money in the banks.

Friends have suggested they buy a new car, or a new home, but they have no plans to move from their Parkwood Lane home in Brackendale.

Both still like to play the lottery, and they often go to the casino on Wednesday to play Bingo. 

Most of the time, luck is on their side.

“I seem to win every time I go there,” says a smiling Wilf Everett.