After trying for 21 years, Mississauga woman and her friends win the lottery

Barbara Constantinescu and her longtime friends have been trying to win the lottery for 21 years, and they’ve finally done it.

The Mississauga woman and her friends of 35 years — Antigona Tomovici, of Scarborough, and Mihaela Marcu, who lives in Toronto — shared a second prize win of $73,147 in the Sept. 27 Lotto 6/49 draw.

The three pals have been buying lottery tickets for more than two decades, according to the OLG.

“I was at home checking our ticket hoping for a win and when I realized we didn’t get the Gold Ball win, I noticed we matched five numbers and the bonus number,” Constantinescu shared while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up their winnings. “I messaged my friends and said, ‘We have something here’.”

They sure did have something — a tidy sum of newfound cash.

“The first moment was very exciting,” Marcu recalled.

“It’s a wonderful feeling; we’re even more enthusiastic,” added Tomovici.

Constantinescu said she plans to save her share of the prize money for a rainy day while Marcu’s mind keeps changing with respect to her plans.

Tomovici, meanwhile, said she needs more time to consider what to do with her share.

The winning ticket was purchased at Petro Canada, on Winston Churchill Boulevard in Mississauga.