"I was shocked," Mary Wernicke, from Neville, Sask., said when she learned she was the winner of a recent $60-million lottery draw.

That is the largest amount ever won by a Saskatchewan resident.

Neville is a village of about 80 residents, about 50 kilometres south of Swift Current. Wernicke bought a $5 quick pick ticket from a Swift Current drug store.

"I only had a $5 bill in my purse," Wernicke recounted. "I thought to myself, 'If I'm meant to win, that's all it's going to take.'"

Wernicke didn't know she was the big winner until five days after the draw. On Wednesday, Aug. 17, she said she had a feeling that she should check her ticket.

"I felt different all morning," she said. "They say if you have an itchy hand, it means money is coming your way. Well, both my hands were itchy."

She took her ticket back to drug store and asked the store clerk to check it for her.

"The lottery terminal made a different sound than I'm used to hearing," she said. "She looked at the ticket, then looked at me and said, 'You're the big winner.'"

Wernicke said it will take some time for the reality of the win to sink in. She said she has no immediate plans.

"I have a lot of different things on my mind, so I'm going to sleep on it for a while," she said.

Wernicke's immediate family numbers more than 30 — including children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren — and she said she is thrilled to know the impact her $60-million win will have.

"It means everything to be able to help my family," she said. "I've dreamed and prayed about that for a long time."