A Winnipeg fortune teller, who has been credited with helping a single-time client win a $6.8-million lottery jackpot, would rather do readings about a person's relationships or career than hand out lucky numbers.
"It's not my favourite subject," sighed the Hungarian-born psychic, who goes by her first name, Katerina.
Judy Mayer told reporters in Winnipeg this week that Katerina gave her all but one of the lucky numbers she used to win half of the Lotto 6-49's Feb. 21 draw.
The mother of two and former night hotel and bar manager said that Katerina wrote six numbers on the back of her business card after a tarot card reading 18 months ago, and she had been playing them ever since.
However, that was until last month, when the 56-year-old decided to change the last of the six numbers given to her by Katerina from 45 to 46. Ms. Mayer can't remember what prompted her to make the last-minute change.
"I started screaming, of course ecstatically, 'I got all six of them!' " Ms. Mayer recalled about the moment she realized she had hit the jackpot last Thursday.
Katerina claimed that this isn't the first time she has helped a client win the lottery. She said five years ago, she gave all six winning numbers to a male Saskatchewan client.
The psychic, who has been reading tarot cards and palms in Winnipeg for more than 20 years, is extremely happy for Ms. Mayer, and she wouldn't decline a "small piece" of the winnings if her one-off client offered them up.
She said that since news broke about her connection to the lottery win, her phone hasn't stopped ringing. But she doesn't expect her Winnipeg store will be bombarded by people seeking more lucky numbers.
"I'm not even looking for new business. I'm ready to retire. I will do as much as I can handle," she said.
"We've heard of many, many ways that people select their winning numbers . . . but I'm not sure if we've ever heard of tarot cards being used," John Matheson, a Western Canada Lottery Corp. spokesman, said yesterday.