Retiree wins five years of free rent

A 62-year-old Chattanooga woman won five years of rent-free living at the Creekside at Shallowford retirement community when she stopped by the community for a tour with her 82-year-old mother recently according to the facility manager.

The two now plan to sell their house and live together at the retirement home.

"I didn't even know there was a contest," exclaimed Brenda Haney as she sat down a day later to eat lunch in the facility's bustling lunchroom.

Haney's winning ticket, one of two grand prizes worth $150,000, was part of a nationwide promotion by Salem, Ore.-based Holiday Retirement, a company that oversees more than 300 retirement homes nationwide, according to a news release.

More than 62,000 cards were distributed nationally, the release said.

"My mother and I were going down Gunbarrel Road for a doctor's appointment, and we decided to stop by, see some friends and take a tour" of the retirement home on Shallowford Road, she said.

After the tour, as Haney prepared to leave, facility manager Dell Barrow suggested that they scratch off the tickets that they had forgotten about during the tour.

"Mother's said, 'Sorry you're not a winner,' so Dell (Barrow) handed me a key, and I could not believe my eyes," Haney said.

"We just know it was a blessing from the Lord, it had to be," said her mother, Delores Haney, who will join her at the retirement community within a month. "It has changed our minds about scratch-off cards, I always thought they were fixed."

"Yeah, it blew that theory out of the water," Brenda Haney agreed.

Brenda and Delores Haney plan to stay busy. They've already put their house on the market, and Brenda Haney will continue to make and sell jewelry, her favorite hobby.

But they added that after working hard all their lives, they don't mind the idea of taking life a little easier, at least for the next five years.

Brenda Haney worked for General Motors straight out of high school, and then worked for TVA for 29 years until her retirement. Her mother, a beautician, owned a beauty shop for 18 years and managed three fabric stores.

"I don't know what the future holds, but the Lord has been good to us so far," Brenda Haney said.

Her winning ticket was one of more than 1,800 distributed by Creekside at Shallowford, which offers residents the option to take a "vacation" at any of the parent company's 300 locations nationwide at any time, for no charge.

Upcoming Events