Latrobe woman wins big from scratch-off Pa. Lottery ticket

When Diane Babbin sent her mother, Laura LeBlanc, to the Shop ’n Save in Latrobe last week, she was expecting to receive a thermometer, not a million dollars.

“We still haven’t bought the thermometer,” Babbin joked Wednesday.

The 38-year-old Latrobe woman said her son, Boston Soluri, had stayed home sick from school that day so she asked her mother to get a thermometer and some scratch-off lottery tickets from the store on Dailey Street. A little while later, Babbin’s mother called and asked her daughter to pick her up because she wasn’t able to drive.

Babbin said her mother had scratched off most of the winning Millionaire Maker game card by the time she got to the store. Her mom handed her the Pennsylvania Lottery instant ticket to finish scratching.

Once Babbin got to the last corner of the card, she realized her family’s life was about to change.

“It still doesn’t feel real,” Babbin said. “I didn’t really say anything (when I saw that I won). My mouth was on the floor.”

Boston, however, was a bit more revealing.

“I could tell you what I said when I found out, but it had some ‘no, no,’ words,” the 15-year-old said.

Some of his friends didn’t believe the news about his family’s good fortune.

“Everyone I told either said ‘no’ or ‘I don’t believe you’ or ‘in your dreams,’ ” he said.

Babbin, a single mother of two, plans to use some of the winnings to send her daughter, Piper Soluri, 18, to college. While winning the money has been quite an experience, Babbin said nothing compares to the feeling of security when it comes to household expenses.

“There are no worries,” Babbin said. “We’ll have food and clothes and heat and electricity.”

Although she and her family play scratch-off tickets pretty often, she never expected to win a prize this large.

“I probably play more than I should,” Babbin said. “We usually just play off our winnings. There’s usually three or four dollars tucked up in the car visor. I didn’t even want to scan the ticket because I was like, ‘This is not real. It can’t even be real.’ ”

Babbin’s two children have their own hopes for the money. This is not the first time they’ve had a conversation about what they would do with a million dollars — it’s just the first time it’s been a real possibility.

“We’ve talked about this before,” Piper said. “We talked about what we would do with a million dollars, and when it actually happened, it all went out the window. We’ve definitely changed our ideas for the money for the better.”

Babbin’s daughter hopes her family uses some of the winnings to travel to see some of their out-of-state relatives.

“It’s going to help pay for my college, and we’re going to get to buy the house that we really want,” Piper said. “We’re just really grateful.”

Boston said he hopes to get some new tennis and bowling equipment.

Babbin said the money will be spread throughout the home that she also shares with her mother and father, Joe LeBlanc, and brother, Donny LeBlanc.

“We all live together,” Babbin said. “We’re a village.”