Toronto grandmother wins $40M jackpot
Posted April 8, 2013 4:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A 51-year-old Toronto woman couldn’t contain her excitement as she collected her $40-million Lotto Max winnings on Monday.
Maria Carreiro said during a news conference at the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. head office she plays the same numbers all the time but it was a quick pick that made her rich.
The mother of three and a grandmother of five said she usually wins $5 or a free ticket so when she checked her numbers at the machine she thought she had won $40,000.
“I went home and I told my daughter, ‘I won forty thousand, I won forty thousand,’ and she was jumping on the bed,” she said.
It was only when her daughter checked the numbers again on the computer that she found out her mother’s mistake.
Carrerio said she routinely played the lottery in the hopes that one day her husband of 30 years could quit his construction job and her family could have a better life.
“Every person has told us that it hasn’t gone to a better, deserving family,” her daughter Manuela explained, before breaking down in tears. “My dad works so hard and we’ve been struggling so much. Forty million is so much money. It’s a blessing.”
The first thing Carrerio plans to doing with her new found wealth is take the whole family out to dinner. After that, she has some travel plans.
“I’m going to Hawaii! My lifelong dream!” she exclaimed. “(I’m) going to buy a house for my daughter, for me — what else is there?”
Carreiro said the family also plans to head back to Portugal, where both she and her husband were born.
