Reconnecting with a PCH Winner from 1989

Once Upon a Time …

… a girl named Olga left her homeland of Spain and came to the United States, married Harold, and settled in El Paso, Texas.  Their household grew to include two daughters and two sons. Olga dreamed of someday taking her whole new family to Spain to visit the family she had left behind.  It seemed an impossible dream.

Then on August 2, 1989, a van pulled up; three people in blue blazers and a cameraman jumped out and rushed toward the house with flowers and balloons and a big piece of cardboard.  Completely mystified, Olga answered the door and asked “What is this all about?”

We told her we were from Publishers Clearing House and had a special prize for Harold: $23,000 – a thousand dollars for every year he had entered the PCH Sweepstakes.  Still skeptical, Olga invited us in and kept doing her laundry while we tried to convince her that this was all “for real.”  Her teenage daughters Lorena and Oliva joined us in the kitchen and were as baffled as Olga – understandable, since the now-iconic PCH TV commercials showing in-person deliveries by the Prize Patrol were a relatively new thing.  Told that Harold would be home from work at 5 PM, we hid around the corner in our van and waited for him to pull into the driveway.

What a homecoming!  Harold’s mouth fell open when we presented him with the Big Check, and then he let out a booming laugh. “Holy catfish!  An old man like me might be able to retire one of these days!” he exclaimed as he popped a bottle of Prize Patrol champagne.

On a recent visit to El Paso, I was able to reconnect with this winning family but was saddened to hear that Harold and Olga had passed away some years ago.  Daughter Lorena, now a mother of five, reminisced fondly of that wonderful “winning moment” 29 years ago.  She told us that – thanks to the prize money – Mom and Dad and the four kids all went to Spain for a joyous family reunion Olga had always dreamed of and considered impossible.  In addition, that $23,000 – worth about $45,000 in 2018 dollars – took care of other things on the Peases’ wish list.

So, you see, just as we have said countless times, “Publishers Clearing House is the house where dreams come true .”

Enter our sweepstakes every chance you get, and your dreams of a Big Check from PCH could come true, too.

Dave Sayer
PCH Prize Patrol Ambassador