#powerball SHELDON COUPLE CLAIMS $1 MILLION POWERBALL PRIZE

October 8th, 2013

Even after learning she'd won a $1 million Powerball prize, a northwest Iowa woman still went into work for a few hours Monday morning before heading to the lottery to claim her winnings.

"It was payroll," Debbie Schilling of Sheldon said as she and her husband claimed their $1 million prize. "Yep, I had to make sure everybody got paid."

Schilling, 52, who works in human resources at V.H. Manufacturing in Rock Valley, split the prize with her husband, Dave. Debbie Schilling bought the couple's winning ticket at Casey's, 504 Second Ave. in Sheldon.

Debbie Schilling said she was helping to host an open house for her mother's 80th birthday on Sunday when her children began to call her, asking if she'd heard that there had been a $1 million winner in Sheldon.

"I said, 'Well that's cool! Wouldn't it be cool to have that ticket?'" she recalled. Then she remembered that she had a Powerball ticket in her wallet and after she pulled over to the side of the road, they began to compare the numbers over the phone.

"And then I screamed," she said. "I drove home with a death grip on the steering wheel. I told them where my billfold was at in the car in case I got into a crash so they could get the ticket. But I made it. I thought I was going to die of thirst, I wouldn't even stop to get anything to drink. And then I got home and I was shaking so bad."

Dave Schilling, 51, who works at the Norwesco plastics manufacturing plant in Sheldon, said he didn't believe the good news at first.

"I said, 'There's no way, you've got to be kidding,'" he recalled. "I said, 'I'm not going to believe it until the ticket is here. I want to see it.' And sure as heck, we had it."

The couple, who have six adult children, two of whom are in college, and seven grandchildren, said they look forward to using their lottery winnings to help their family.

"We'll help our kids out and put a little bit of money away and hopefully we have something to retire on," Dave said.

Debbie added, "We'll pay some debts, be able to breathe financially a little bit now."

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