Morning coffee and $1 million great way for Mississauga lotto winner to start the day

Nothing goes with a morning coffee quite like news that you’ve suddenly become $1 million richer.

Mississauga’s Annunziata Bugeja now knows this firsthand after learning her Lottario ticket contained the winning numbers for the Ontario jackpot in the July 29 draw. The retiree won the top prize of $1.07 million.

Bugeja, a grandmother who says she always makes sure she has tickets for Lotto 6/49, Lottario and Ontario 49, checked her ticket shortly after waking up the day after the draw.

“I was in my kitchen having my morning coffee when I checked the winning numbers on OLG.ca. When the numbers kept matching, I thought, ‘This can’t be’,” she said of her first big lotto win while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to pick up her prize. “I checked so many times.”

After Bugeja told her children of the big win, the family cried “happy tears” together.

“It felt like a dream. I never thought in a million years this would happen,” she said.

Bugeja plans to share the winnings with her children and take a vacation.

“I would like to go to Europe, and I also want to do some home renovations. I will make sure this money goes a long way,” she said. “This is an incredible blessing and I’m so thankful for this gift.”

The winning ticket was purchased at Q Market, on Rathburn Road in Mississauga.