A tough week could not have ended any better.
That was the case for Juan Pablo Garcia Silva Perez on Friday (December 1st) when his name was drawn in the 2023 Hospice Dream Home Lottery, landing himself a brand new house in University Heights.
Five days later, Perez said it still has not sunk in.
“I had to ask to see the house one more time because it wasn’t completely digested yet,” he said with a laugh. “People reach out to me asking if it is true, I say ‘I don’t know, is it?'”
Perez was a hard man to find on Friday night – he didn’t pick up his phone when Donna Flood, the PG Hospice Palliative Care Society’s Executive Director called to share the news.
His name went public soon after, and it was not long before messages started pouring in from all around North America trying to tell him he had won.
“I’d been going through a little bit of a rough week and I put my phone aside because of that,” he remembered. “I had put my phone aside because of that and was focused on playing a board game.”
“I’m setting up the game then I look at my phone and I see I must have had 70 missed calls and messages… what worried me is my Dad and family were on top, there were so many and they’re in Mexico,” he said. “I don’t know why they would know I won something.”
“I looked at my friend and said ‘something really bad has happened… my whole family is trying to get ahold of me.'”
Perez’s friend urged him to phone his Dad, which didn’t help clear the confusion.
“My Dad told me ‘is it true?'” Perez remembered. “I said ‘is what true?’ ‘Well, did you win?’ ‘Did I win what?’ ‘I don’t know, people are calling and saying you won something.'”
Eventually, between calling friends and reading some of the messages, Perez began to realize he had won the Dream Home.
“I just kind of went in shock,” he said. “After that I tried to not look at my phone and let it sink in, my friend said ‘what are you doing, call them!'”
“That is when it really sunk in,” Perez explained. “I’m on the phone just trying not to break down… all that came out was ‘I- I’m happy.'”
He said the lottery is completely life-changing, for him and potentially his family as well, explaining his mom and sister just moved to Montreal from Mexico, now “worst case scenario they can just come stay with me. It just opens so many doors.”
This was far from his first time supporting the Hospice House.
“I used to be the General Manager at the Canadian Brewhouse,” he said. “I loved talking to Donna, she was always coming up with ideas and I said ‘yeah, whatever you need, we will support with the Brewhouse.'”
“We are all struggling a little bit, but I feel like we can always give a little,” Perez said to anyone considering supporting Hospice. “It is good to know you can help someone else. That is the mentality I had, kindness is human nature and we should give a little back over time.”
The Hospice House runs an annual 50/50 draw as well, if it sells out, the January grand prize draw will be worth $250,000.
You can find out more about that, or buy tickets, here.