In 1992, Kim Walker had a lottery ticket in her hand that would grant her a $27million (£21million) prize to be paid out during the next 25 years.
Living in Boulder, Colorado, she called her mother - who told her to sign the ticket, go back to bed and call back in the morning. She told her boyfriend, who said he'd finish cleaning the restaurant where he worked, give the restaurant’s cook a ride and come home.
Despite becoming the latest Colorado Lottery millionaire — and still the game’s largest single winner to date —Kim felt more than a little underwhelmed. She said: "I just think everyone was in shock."
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She spent her huge fortune wisely (Getty Images)Kim is one of Colorado's lottery winners who has used her earnings wisely. Since moving to Steamboat in 1992, she has devoted much of her time to developing and promoting figure skating programs in town.
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As well as that, she and her husband plan to open a new restaurant too. Kim said: "We got really good advice, and we’re pretty conservative people as it is."
However, earlier that life-changing day, Kim was concerned with something related to cake mix. Her boyfriend wouldn't eat a fat-free cake mix her mother sent over. Worried that the cake would go off, she headed into 7-Eleven on a routine gas stop for a can of frosting, a carton of vanilla ice cream and some milk.
The Colorado Lotto jackpot was soaring, and everyone Kim knew was buying tickets. Standing in line, she decided to buy three quick-pick tickets — the kind that print automatically and don’t require the buyer to choose numbers. The day after one of those tickets altered her life’s plan, Kim and Dan drove to Denver, turned in the winning card and started thinking about what to do next.
Dan quit the restaurant he worked at and Kim left her physician assistant job. They got married, moved to Steamboat Springs and bought the relatively modest log cabin they lived in for six years until they had children. She said: "I always wanted to live in a ski town, and I always wanted to teach figure skating, and those are the two things I do."
Kim spent many years before college as a competitive figure skater, and having continued skating and teaching in Boulder, she made her local rink her passion project. Now, the arena hosts youth and adult hockey programs, figure skating classes for all ages, and the Steamboat Springs Figure Skating Club, which Kim directs.
She teaches skating at the arena several times a week. In her years as a figure skater, Kim developed the confidence to go out on the ice, put forth a solo performance and be judged. She said: "It teaches you to accept what other people are thinking of you and to be able to move on and improve from it."
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