Luz continues to get up at 4:30 in the morning to work and Eva keeps the mortgage; in 2019 they won 800,000 euros from the rain of millions in Las Torres. They still dream that it’s their turn
Do not be fooled by the apparent lack of activity or the closed blind of the Obrador de Luz, in Las Torres de Cotillas, on a Friday morning. The owner of the business, Luz Laveda, has been working inside for hours. It began before the first ray of sunlight gave color to the two-story houses on Calle Venezuela in the town, where three years ago, in front of that same blind, dozens of residents celebrated the 20 million euros that El Gordo of the extraordinary Christmas raffle left in the area.
If it weren’t for the previous telephone conversation, one might think that the business has been closed since December 22, 2019, when the owner was enveloped in a cloud of champagne and photographers.
It was a call, around 9.20, that alerted Luz to her luck seconds after the first prize came out. “She was working. My cell phone rang and it was a friend of mine from Torreagüera, who had ordered a cake that Sunday. He tells me: ‘El Gordo has played in Las Torres!’ And I asked him where he ended up. ‘In 90’, he told me she. And I thought that I had received 100 euros from the termination », she admits. But her friend insisted. “Let’s see, check it out.” “Tell me the number,” she asked him. “26590”. Then she Luz ran out of air and began to cry with joy. «Javi, that’s the one I’m wearing! What is the one I’m wearing!” “I’m going there,” he replied, “otherwise you won’t finish my cake today.”
The truth is that Luz finished that cake and, with the help of her sister and her mother, each and every one of the orders of the day. When her friend Javi arrived at the establishment, he dedicated himself to answering the phone, which did not stop ringing, while she continued with her work. Soon the customers were arriving and a mess was forming outside. Luz had not only gotten the Gordo, but she had sold another 18 tenths among the regulars of her workshop.
Three years have passed since the award that downloaded 24 million in La Torres and Beniaján. “He helped very humble people,” they remember
Eva Macho took one. She continues to be moved today by remembering those happy moments with Luz. «I was alone watching the draw. My husband was sleeping because he had worked at night », she affirms. When she saw the number on TV, she didn’t know what to do. The first thing she thought was that she may not have checked well. «I looked at the number on the screen and went down the hall. I returned to. She told me: Shall I wake him up? But she thought: What if I’m wrong? No no no. The number is that.” She spent 15 long minutes like this: touring the house, returning in front of the television, looking at each of the figures one by one, undecided. Until she couldn’t take it anymore. “I said to myself: Look, I’ll pick him up and let him look at him.” As soon as they could verify the stroke of luck, the euphoria was unleashed. “I jumped almost to the ceiling! she says. I started screaming.”
a normal monday
After the joy, normalcy again. When Luz, recently awarded, entered the door of the establishment of one of her clients, the first thing she heard was: «I knew it! That even if you got two million euros, you do not let me down ». She has not stopped getting up at dawn or continuing to take care of her business. “Service is service,” she notes. «I know that he has his clients and that he has to give them their dessert. He couldn’t help but take it with him ».
Eva won 400,000 euros; Luz, 400,000 more and her boyfriend got another of the winning tickets. But life goes on. Among the rest of the winners there was everything: «Very old people, with 80 years; a worker who was coming here for the first time, because they were doing some work near her, a friend of mine who was about to be evicted, humble people », Luz emphasizes. «Most of the winners bought or finished paying for a house. Some changed the car. But people have stayed the same. The award only helped them solve problems.
She allowed that friend of Luz’s who the banks were threatening, for example, to leave a desperate situation. «She had until August 2020 to leave the house and, in December 2019, she wins the lottery. Go figure. She fixed what she had to fix and she’s done ».
Eva canceled the mortgage on her apartment. She then bought another house in the country that she is still paying the mortgage on every month. She also got a van. “I have four children,” she justifies. Little more she has changed her life. That same Monday, a few hours after learning that she had won a good bit of the lottery, she went to work. «There were colleagues who told me: ‘But what are you doing here?’». “Well, work, just like you,” she answered them. «It is true that you no longer warm your head, but you have to continue, because you do not have life resolved -she says-she. Come on, when I have to buy something, I still think about it, huh? ». That’s why she continues to live on her salary. “I spend the whole month with that. And the other is for extraordinary things ».
Luz invested her part in making a reform of her house “a little better” than initially planned and also canceling all the loans for her business and home. What she has left over is a small mattress that allows her to sleep better at night, in case she had to face any extra expenses in the workshop. “You don’t retire, but you live much more calmly,” she admits.
And, after El Gordo, what happens when the 22nd arrives? Do you still buy lottery? “Yes Yes of course! They both answer in unison. We play the same as always. You are still excited when the day of the draw arrives. Let’s see if it touched us!”
First prize has fallen 15 times in the Community
The last time dozens of tenths of the Gordo were sold in the Region was three years ago, when Luz and Eva were graced, although it is not the last time that citizens of the Community have won the first prize. In 2020 there was only one tenth sold in El Perolo, which was distributed in a Christmas basket. In 2021, when luck seemed to have been elusive, a lucky trip to Atocha came to light that brought 30 tenth prize winners from Madrid to the Region. In total, there have been 15 occasions on which the Christmas Lottery Jackpot has been sold in the Community.
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