Turkeys & strikes will be just an added touch at 3-day benefit planned for everyone’s friend
It wasn’t too long ago that Lonnie Cochran was working on a mullet that might have made Billy Ray Cyrus blush.
Today, decades removed from his carefree teenaged days when he indeed did have hair down to his shoulders, Cochran wears a bandana. There is no hair coming out from the back of it, either. That’s because the 1987 Tracy Area High School graduate and hard-working owner of Tracy Lanes is fighting cancer.
Truth be told, losing his hair has been pretty far down on his list of concerns.
“Out of habit every day, I grab a brush,” he said with a chuckle. “I knew it was coming — I didn’t have a lot to work with before, but three months ago I damn near had a mullet.”
Cochran, 57, was diagnosed with Stage 4 small-cell lung carcinoma this past July. He remembers dealing a persistent bad cough before taking action. Some abnormalities on his chest x-ray this summer prompted a CT scan, where doctors discovered what they believed was a mass on one of his lungs.
The mass was blocking an air tube to his left lung, so he was sent to Sioux Falls for more intense tests.
“They found that the cancer had moved from my lung to my liver,” he said. “And it also got into my bones. I got it in the top of my skull, the back of my skull, in my lymph nodes, spine, and in my hips and my knees.”
“It’s kind of like a firecracker went off in his body,” said Lonnie’s wife, Jolene.
Lonnie said he wasn’t overly surprised by the grim diagnosis. His father, Bud, died of lung cancer; like his dad, Lonnie was a smoker, having picked up the habit in high school.
“He quit for about 20 years before he died,” Lonnie said. “He beat lung cancer once, and then it came back and got him. The day I found out about my cancer, I threw (my cigarettes) away.”
What did come as a surprise is how fast the cancer had metastasized. Lonnie didn’t know at the time that small-cell carcinoma is a type of cancer that is notorious for spreading fast.
Still, he says he feels pretty good, other than fatigue that has forced him to dial back a bit from his responsibilities at the bowling alley and with the City. Lonnie’s family has been putting in more hours at the alley, and Lonnie also credits the City for allowing him to make up his own hours.
“I’ve been (at the alley), but when I get tuckered out, I just go home,” Lonnie said. “Instead of staying ’til one in the morning, I gotta leave early, like at 10 or so. And the City has been really good about it … my normal hours are 7 to 1; if I don’t get any sleep the night before, I’ll go in from 7 to 10, then I’ll go home and take a little nap.”
Lonnie is currently doing chemotherapy every three weeks. After his infusion, he takes four chemo pills twice a day for the next two days. So far, he has been able to avoid some of the pitfalls of such a treatment.
“I haven’t been sick yet,” said Cochran, who avoided radiation because the cancer spread so much. “But I can’t sleep too good. Everything tastes metallic; everything tastes terrible.”
As proof that a strong support system can make all the difference, Lonnie’s friends and family are putting together a three-day benefit — Oct. 9-11 at the bowling alley.
“I told everyone I didn’t want a benefit, but they did it anyways,” Cochran said. “After I saw some of the bills coming in that insurance doesn’t cover, I was kind of glad they wanted to do it! I was more willing to have a benefit after seeing some of that come in.”
Some of people behind the benefit include Kathy and Brent Knapper; Jamie DeSmet and Amy Falatic; Nikki and Aaron Hippe; James and Dani Johnson; Lori and Todd Gilb; Kevin and Linda Engelkes; and Lonnie’s uncle, Denny Baumann.
“They’ve went way out of their way to get silent auction items donated, food, drinks, tents — they’re taking care of everything,” Lonnie said. “It’s going to be a good weekend. On Saturday, we’re doing blind bowling, where we put a tarp down so you can’t see the pins — you just throw the ball underneath the tarp. It’s gonna be fun.”
Also as part of the weekend, a freewill outdoor meal will take place Friday. The mixed-couples bowling league is taking the Sunday off out of respect to Lonnie’s big weekend.
“He had to be pushed to agree with this,” Jolene said. “His phrase was, ‘I help with benefits, I don’t get benefits.’ Somebody said to me, ‘Who doesn’t like Lonnie?’ They couldn’t think of anybody.”
