Ukrainian Village Woman Wins Lottery

CHICAGO, IL - A Ukrainian Village woman is $650,000 richer after matching all five numbers on a Lucky Day Lotto ticket she bought in March.

Lyubov Mykolyshyn, 58, owns a dry cleaning store and has lived in the West Side neighborhood for 12 years. She was at a gas station with her husband when she used the Lottery self-service machine to buy a $1 Lucky Day Lotto Quick Pick ticket and the day after the drawing, April 1, she found out she won when checking the Illinois Lottery website. All five numbers she picked in the March 31 drawing - 16, 31, 32, 34, 43 - were matched.

“My husband believed me, but my son and daughter wouldn’t. They thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” Mykolyshyn told Lottery officials, adding that she felt like winning the prize “was meant to be.”

Following the win, Mykolyshyn plans to take her family on a trip to her native country of Ukraine.