ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE HUDSON STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
It's been a tough year for Dorothy and Warren Collins of Dublin. Both are in their 70s, and both have been battling physical ailments.
This spring, Dorothy Collins was struck down by viral pneumonia and lung failure, and spent a month in the hospital on a ventilator.
She got better, but the couple has had to worry about paying for some of the leftover medical bills, including charges for in-home oxygen treatments that Medicare stopped covering.
"I've been real sick and real worried about finances," she said.
So much so that even when she's been able to get out, she hasn't thought they could afford to buy lottery tickets.
But about 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, she was in the Shop-Eez near Dublin and decided to plunk down a dollar for a Virginia Lotto ticket.
``What made me buy it? Just impulse, I guess. I said: `Just give me a lottery ticket while I'm here.'''
It turned out she had bought the winning ticket - 5-22-26-27-36-41 - in the $5.8 million jackpot drawn that night.
She didn't realize it until she got up to go to church the next morning.
She was teasing her husband, as she does sometimes. ``I said, `Let me see that paper; I think I've won the lottery.' I looked at that thing - number for number - and said, `That can't be.'''
But it was.
Still, the Collinses haven't been making a big deal about it.
On Monday, after dealing with lawyers and state representatives to make sure everything was official, the Collinses came to the Lottery office in Roanoke to sign for their winnings and meet the media.
"It was kind of odd," Dorothy Collins said. Family and friends "can't understand why I haven't been excited. I'm just not that way."
The couple's two children and four grandkids "are more excited than we are," said Warren Collins, a retired foundry worker.
"They think we're rich now," Dorothy Collins said.
The Collinses said they hadn't really thought much about how they'll spend their winnings, which will come in checks over the next 20 years.
Because 32 percent in taxes comes off the top - and inflation eats away at the time-delayed payments - they'll actually end up pocketing much less than the $5.8 million jackpot.
But it'll still be a huge chunk of change. Their first check will be for $200,941.
They'll pay off some of their medical bills. And perhaps, Dorothy Collins said, they'll buy a new car one of these days.
She said she also joked with her lawyer that, given all her recent health problems, she might just buy a nursing home.
"He got a big kick out of that."
LENGTH: Medium: 59 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER. Staff Warren and Dorothy Collins of Dublinby CNBbought a lottery ticket on a whim and ended up winning more than $5
million. color.