Guest writer Chip Neugebauer remembers friend Bill Cochran

Editor’s Note: The following article was written by Chip Neugebauer in memory of his friend Bill Cochran.

It was Sunday morning and I was in Madison to visit family and special friends, and I decided I would make the short drive to Athens Regional to see my friend Bill Cochran. But I couldn't.
He was not there.
Little did I know then, but he had been swept up into the heavens, to be a part of the larger world (tell my dad and your dad I said hey). He fell victim to that "C-word."
Last night I was sitting on the front porch with a princess and we were gazing at the fuller-than-full moon, supposedly the largest of the year or something like that. We sat there and took the bounty of God's blessings all in, as we watched the moon rise above all this beautiful world that we call life.
The next day I learn that Joltin' Joe has left and gone away.
I have always been close to the Cochran family. "Miss Jane" taught me, or tried to, numerous subjects in high school, and she was very patient with my mischievous way. Ricky and I did just about everything together, and then, Bill was a good high school football player, playing along side of Crawford Greenway and some others, and was always with us in our tailgates to Athens and beyond for Georgia games, including the cocktail party in Jacksonville when Lindsay Scott came home. And now Jennifer, who may be the nicest person I have ever met ...
I felt moved to share with Madison my love and loss for Mr. Cochran, and I hope the Morgan County Citizen can  find room for this. Yet and still, Bill was a great friend to many in his lifetime, and now, maybe I know why that moon was so big?

Greg Stewart welcomed his youngest daughter Ansley Stewart home for a weekend of fun in the sun. Ansley was recently crowned Miss Hunnington College in Montgomery, Alabama where she is a junior majoring in Youth Ministry.
We all wish Frances Brewer a speedy recovery. She had the misfortune to fall and break her hip last week. She is now recuperating at the TCU in Madison.
Sympathy is extended to the families of Jake Wilkins who died last week in an accident.
Sympathy is also extended to the family of Bill Cochran who died Saturday.

Printed in the May 10, 2012 edition.