Abdullah Balghsoun, father of Mohammed, the young boy who won a fully furnished luxury villa in Okaz's “Cities and History” competition, couldn't believe his ears. Abdullah, an employee of the General Auditing Bureau, was at his office with his coworker Bandar Al-Motairi when he got a phone call. The man on the other end was Prince Dr. Khaled Bin Faisal Bin Turki Aal Saud. Before he had time to even think that someone was playing a prank on him, Prince Khaled told him the good news that his son Mohammed was the winner among more than half a million participants. “I wasn't even dreaming of a piece of land when I received the call from Prince Dr. Khaled,” a jubilant Abdullah told Okaz staffers who greeted and congratulated him when he visited the organization. “When my friend (Motairi) saw the change in my face and asked me what the call was all about, I told him what the Prince had told me, and he was even happier than I was.” Abdullah arrived at Okaz headquarters with his children, eight-year-old Mohammed, three-year-old Sohait and 10-year old Lama. “Without realizing what I was doing, I grabbed the phone and called my wife to tell her the best news I had ever heard in my life,” he said. “At first, she told me I must be joking, but then she started crying after I swore to her that it was Prince Khaled who delivered the news.” He then picked up his son Mohammed from school, and told him on the way that he had won a prize. “As I was carrying Okaz's Monday issue that had a picture of the Villa on the front page, I pointed at it and told him that he won this villa that will be our home,” he said. “Mohammed held me and kissed me, and that is when I started to cry.” On the way to Okaz, he said, the streets were congested as each minute felt like an age. “ I had thought that I would fly to get there as soon as possible,” he said. Abdullah said that he lived as a guest in his brother's house in Al-Rowais District. He said he might leave breaking the news to his neighbors to Okaz, as most of them are avid readers of the newspaper. “I asked myself how would I leave my generous brother and neighbors, and the place where I grew up and spent the best of my years,” said Abdullah with a sigh. “I decided that after I move to my dream villa and new life, I will make a habit of visiting Al-Rowais daily.” He added that Okaz had made his biggest dream come true, and turned him from a man in dept to millionaire. __
