The suspense of an elusive lottery winner in Nova Scotia is finally over now that a publicity-shy retired fisherman has emerged to collect his $13.8-million Lotto 6/49 jackpot.

Leon Hirtle, 77, picked up the $13,805,045 cheque Thursday morning at the Bridgewater Curling Club after winning the draw on Oct. 1.

The quiet-mannered senior from Bell Island, N.S., said he was shocked to learn he had won the jackpot.

“It didn’t really sink in,” he said in a statement. “I walked across the room and told my brothers, ‘well, I won.’ They didn’t believe me so I said, ‘here’s the numbers.’ They checked and said ‘you’re rich!’”

But Hirtle wasn’t in a rush to pick up the cheque and the ticket sat on his coffee table until the next day, when he took it to the Bridgewater Pharmasave to be validated.

“Well, I took the ticket in to be evaluated and the girl, she looked at it, and she just stood there, she was stunned. She called another girl over and she looked at it and she said, ‘sure enough he won,’” said Hirtle.

“There was lots of hooting and hollering and goings-on in the store.”

Hirtle said he lives a simple life at home with his two brothers and he doesn’t expect that to change with the winnings.

The modest millionaire, who will celebrate his 78th birthday on Sunday, has never married and doesn’t have any children. Hirtle is the eldest of seven surviving siblings and says he intends to share most of his winnings with his family.

“He's a nice man, a real nice man. He'd help anybody that he can, he always did,” said Hirtle’s youngest brother Frank. “Anything that he could do, he would do for you.”

“He is definitely a caring man that's for sure, caring and hard-working,” said Hirtle’s niece Felicia.

Hirtle, who started working as a fisherman at the age of 16, retired just two years ago at the age of 75. He lives with two of his younger brothers and plans to renovate the home he’s lived in for more than 40 years with some of his winnings.

“I am relieved, now that it's over, we can get back straightened again to where we were,” said Hirtle’s brother Eric.

Hirtle isn’t sure what else he plans to do with his winnings, but he joked that he would like to have a Happy Meal, and maybe a ride in a limousine, since he doesn’t drive.

Hirtle bought the winning Lotto 6/49 ticket at the Bridgewater Pharmasave. Since the store both sold and validated the ticket, it has received a 1 per cent seller’s prize of about $138,805.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kelland Sundahl