'We want to keep our feet on the ground': Quebec family of 26 splits $60M lottery prize

It was a pit stop at the gas station for which the Boivin family will be forever grateful.

On New Year's Day, Annie Roy and her husband, Gilles Leprohon, stopped to fill up their gas tank on their way her parents' home in Rouville, about 50 kilometres east of Montreal. Roy decided to call her parents to ask whether they wanted her to buy a group lottery ticket.

"My mom said, 'Well, yes. Of course!'"

One week later, the family found out their Lotto Max number combination was the winning one.

"My father checked the numbers, and then the chain began. He woke up my mother, then the kids, then the brothers and sisters," said Julie Boivin.

"We are all suffering from insomnia this last week," she added, laughing.

The Boivin family consists of 26 people spanning three generations: the parents, their four children with their spouses, and the grandchildren. Their ages range from 21 to 70.

They chartered a bus to get to Montreal and pick up their prize.

The Boivins will also split the winnings with a couple, who are close friends.

"Every time we buy a group ticket, they always participate. They weren't there on New Year's Day, but we are saving them their share," said Leprohon.

The family is splitting the $60 million, which isn't taxable, equally in 20 parts, so that each couple or family gets $3 million. 

'We have dreams'

The family members say they have ideas of what they may do with the money, including perhaps taking an early retirement, going on a trip or buying a new truck. But they say they are in no rush to spend any of their winnings yet.

"We are taking our time. We haven't made any decisions yet — no purchases yet. We have dreams and we are meeting with financial advisers. We want to be well-advised before we do anything," said Rosaire Boivin.

"The younger ones are thinking about their life's dreams. For the older ones, it solidifies their retirement plans. For us in our middle age, we will either continue working our lighten our workloads. We don't want to change too much because we want to keep our feet on the ground," said Julie Boivin, who is a teacher and even went to work after learning she was a millionaire.

"I went to school on Monday, and I thought I was behaving normally but apparently not. When my colleagues asked me what was up, I told them and they were all very happy for me," she said.

Link to Loto-Québec

One of the family members, Gilles Leprohon, is a Loto-Québec employee.

But the agency says his prize money is not in question – employees are allowed to buy lottery tickets.

"It's strictly a game of chance. The president of Loto-Québec could buy a ticket and win," said Loto-Québec spokesman Guy Mongrain.

Lotto Max is a Canada-wide lottery where participants' odds of winning are one in 28.6 million.

Given that he's allowed to play, Leprohon took a chance to see if lightning can strike twice.

"We went back to the same gas station, put more gas and the young clerk who was there sold us another group ticket. So we may be back again to collect $34 million," he joked.