Lotto winner’s joy at contact with estranged daughter
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LOTTERY winner James Finlayson — who revealed on Tuesday he was searching for his five children — has had an emotional conversation with his daughter who thought he had died years ago.
The pensioner confirmed Lorna, whom he had not seen since 1998, phoned him after reading his story in The Inverness Courier this week.
"She told me she had seen a death notice for someone with the same name as me from Merkinch in the late 90s and thought I had died," he said.
"She was that excited when she phoned and she was crying and I was crying myself."
On Tuesday we exclusively revealed that 71-year-old Mr Finalyson, of Benula Road, Merkinch, who won £100,000 on the Health Lottery on Saturday evening, was desperately trying to trace his estranged children, James, Brian, Paul and Mark Esslemont and married daughter Lorna, so he could share his good fortune and give them each a cheque for £5000.
Mr Finlayson lost contact with them all following the collapse of his first marriage to Ruby Olivia Wilson, whom he lived with in Aberdeen.
He moved to Inverness in 1979 and married his second wife Barbara-Ann, who died from cancer in December 2009.
Now in contact with his daughter, who lives in Inverbervie, Aberdeenshire, Mr Finlayson is hopeful he will also trace his sons who he believes live in the Aberdeenshire area except for Mark, who is in London.
"I’m very happy and want to thank The Inverness Courier for helping me out, I really appreciate it," he said. "I’m a lot happier now with my daughter getting in touch as I was quite down before."
Mr Finlayson bought his winning ticket from the Inverness Mini Mart in Benula Road and praised owner Gary Davidson for helping him check his ticket and phoning the lottery organisers.
Today Mr Finlayson will step on a plane for the first time as he travels to London to pick up his £100,000 cheque.
