SANTA ANA, CALIF. ? The newest millionaire on Bishop Street arrived home about 1 a.m. Friday, still in shock.

Miguel Herrera had put a quarter in the slots in Laughlin, Nev., on this 70th birthday 48 hours earlier, and when the wheels stopped turning he had $8.4 million reportedly the biggest payout ever for a 25-cent machine.

Now he was sitting in the living room of his modest two-bedroom home as a steady stream of friends and family especially family stopped by.

Wife Josefina, seemingly immune to the fact that she had just jumped into a much higher tax bracket, continued to cook rice, chicken and beans for everyone expected to visit through the day.

As more people arrived, the mood never changed utter disbelief.

“So far, it just seems like any other day,” said son Jerry. “Nobody has started celebrating yet. It just hasn’t hit us.”

Some friends told Herrera to invest his money. Daughter Rosa said he should buy a new house.

But Herrera knew what he wanted to do with his sudden wealth.

For 24 years, he had worked scrubbing dishes, emptying trash cans and mopping floors at two Santa Ana restaurants before retiring three years ago. Now thanks to the pull of a lever, Herrera could buy his own. He plans to open a family-operated taqueria.

And family will be the operative word. Herrera has 10 children, 45 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.

“I’ve always wanted a business that could involve the entire family,” he said. “And restaurants are what I know best.”

Providing for them has always been his first priority, said Herrera, who worked as a dish washer in Santa Ana restaurants since he immigrated from Mexico with his family in the late 1970s.

His older sons worked along side him, helping to put food on the table.

“He always thinks of his family first, never of himself,” Jerry said.

Daughter Rosa said this couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person because of all her father did to help his children growing up. As they got older and married, Herrera insisted they stay at home until they could save enough money to buy a place of their own. “Sometimes there were so many people here with his children and grandchildren that nobody could keep count,” said Jerry.

Herrera said he would divide the bulk of the money among all of his family and would give a large donation to his Santa Ana church, Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was the church, after all, that organized the day trip to Laughlin.

“The best way I could thank God for this fortune He has given us is to give some money back to Him through the church,” Herrera said.

Herrera, who takes about six day trips to Nevada a year, said he wasn’t even planning to go earlier this week. His two daughters, Rosa and Maria, had tickets for the trip, but Maria could not make it because of a child care conflict.

It was while waiting for the church bus to bring him home that he decided to toss just a few more quarters into the Wheel of Fortune machine. He figured Lady Luck might grace him once before he left the Flamingo Resort and Casino.