$217K is a whole lot of money mate, so if you're asking if the wait, the struggle, the sacrifices was worth the wait, hell yeah it was. This only proves that you gotta make huge sacrifices and give up stuffs before you get what you want, sometimes even before you get what you truly deserve. I can only imagine the frustration the dude must have been through tryna fight for what's really his. Prove that sometimes life just wanna screw you over lol.

I remember having similar experience some time ago in the past. I made a huge win of almost $2k but misplaced the ticket and the company refused to pay the win when I returned to claim the win, on the ground that I can't claim my win without my ticket because there's no way to confirm that I am really the owner of the win. It was really frustrating I must say, I tried the best I could but all efforts proved abortive so I had to just let it go. I bet if the money was up to that $217k you bet I wouldn't just let it go, I would've fought tooth and nail to make sure I get money no matter how long it'd take or how much I had to sacrifice to make sure I get my money. It did teach me a lesson though, never to loose a ticket.