Imagine being the only person in a small town to know about your massive lottery win.

Then waiting four weeks all the time the town was buzzing about it.

After winning a $2 million Powerball lottery prize, it took a month before a Forest City woman stepped up to claim the prize.

Tamara Sheehan said that she and her husband, Stephen, spent the time gathering details and making a plan for their future.

She said they were “just being very quiet, getting a lot of questions answered, specifically more on the financials and the taxes.”

But it wasn’t until they drove up to Iowa Lottery headquarters to claim the prize that Tamara said things started to feel a lot more real.

Tamara works in human resources and said that it was fun hearing the buzz around Forest City about who the winner might be.

She said it grew to be big news for her small town.

Tamara bought her ticket at Casey’s general store and gas service, located at 1132 U.S. Highway 69 S. in Forest City.

Casey’s received a $2,000 bonus from the Iowa Lottery for selling Tamara’s $2 million-winning ticket.

To her amazement, Tamara’s easy-pick ticket came within one number of winning the Powerball $403.9 million jackpot in the Oct. 10 drawing.

She had matched the first five numbers, but missed the major power ball number 11 and won a $1 million prize.

But luckily she had added the Power Play option to her purchase.

This multiplied the prize at the Match 5 prize level to $2 million.

Tamara’s ticket was the only one in the country to win a $2 million prize in this draw.

The winning numbers on the October draw that night were: 3-6-11-17-22 and Powerball 11. The Power Play number was 2.

Tamara says that she and her husband have big plans for the winnings. She said they plan to invest and will take a couple of trips.

They will also ‘pay it forward’ by helping selected charities focused on issues that are important o them.

Tamara’s win is the sixth prize of at least $1 million claimed in Iowa in 2022.

Another $1 million prize remains unclaimed more than two months after it was won in Ames.