Lockhart lives with ‘hat trick’ of horrors

BIG LAKE — Linda Lockhart has stage III bone cancer, or maybe it’s stage IV. Either way, she can’t afford the $8,000 test needed to find out.

If her name sounds familiar, it could be because she’s the force of nature behind the Pirates of Dollar Lake event in Big Lake each September and October.

If you’re a gardener, you know her as president of the Big Lake North Root Gardeners and organizer of such favorites as the annual Garden Tour, the Greenhouse Gallop and the Spring Symposium, a fundraiser for Mid-Valley Seniors and Houston Middle School.

It was on the heels of this year’s Pirates of Dollar Lake fundraiser for the Big Lake Lions Recreation Center and Skating Rink that Lockhart noticed she wasn’t quite herself.

For Lockhart, Alaska has three seasons: gardening, pirates and winter. It was during pirate season that she noticed her hip hurt.

“We’d lifted a gate and I thought I’d pulled something,” Lockhart said.

After working since July to craft the pirate adventure, she said by the final weekend of the three-week run she was exhausted and running on pure adrenaline.

“They needed to get the show out of the ice arena,” Lockhart said. “But I just collapsed.”

She’d battled a bout of bronchitis in March and thought something similar was slowing her down this time, too. So she went to a doctor that Thursday, who prescribed her antibiotics and told her to come back Friday.

Lockhart said she was puzzled by the request that she return after taking the antibiotics for just one day. Friday, she saw a different doctor who told her things didn’t look so good.

“I want to see you again on Tuesday.”

What doctors weren’t saying yet was that they hoped an error had produced the results of the urine and blood tests they performed, Lockhart said. But the second doctor’s tests Tuesday produced the same results.

“She sent me to the hospital. They were waiting for me in the emergency room,” Lockhart said.

But she still thought she was just anemic and dehydrated — until they asked her about putting a do not resuscitate order in place.

“I’d never been in the hospital,” she said. “I had no idea what it was going to cost.”

She described the care she received during her week’s stay at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in October as kind and compassionate. And what was the price tag? $60,000.

At the hospital, her oncologist, Dr. Larson, identified the culprit as multiple myeloma, a fairly rare form of bone marrow cancer.

But for Lockhart and longtime life and business partner John Erskine, this is a hat trick of horrors — bone cancer, no insurance and skyrocketing medical bills.

“We’re working with the hospital trying to figure out what we can do,” Lockhart said.

Since finding out in October that it was cancer causing the problems, Lockhart said she has spent three to four hours a day researching treatments. The traditional treatment is chemotherapy and radiation, she said.

“I don’t want to go that route,” Lockhart said.

She has completed the paperwork to be included in the Alaska Comprehensive Health Insurance Association, or ACHIA, a health insurance pool for Alaskans with qualifying pre-existing conditions who have been uninsured for at least six months.

Without this coverage, Lockhart said there is no way she could afford to pursue chemotherapy, even if she wanted to. Just one shot of the chemo she needs costs $50,000, she said.

Although the week’s hospital stay was expensive, Lockhart said the two found a way to get a bit more bang for their buck.

Erskine and Lockhart have been together for 30 years, and cut flowers just aren’t his style, she said. So she was surprised to see him show up at the hospital Oct. 14 with flowers.

“It’s a good thing you brought flowers today,” Lockhart told him.

“Why is that?” Erskine asked.

“Because we are going to get married today.”

Erskine spent the rest of the day chasing down the needed paperwork and their friend Randi Perlman found a pastor to perform the ceremony while another friend tackled the task of locating a nightgown that could double as a wedding dress.

“I told the nurses I promised not to drop dead if I could have a shower and put on this pretty nightgown for the wedding ceremony,” Lockhart said.

She said they think they may have been the first couple married at the hospital, too.

During her weeklong stay, Lockhart had eight blood transfusions and received 21,000 milliliters of saline. That’s why she’s organized a blood drive for Saturday at their Lockhart and Erskine Holiday Garden shop in the East Lake Mall in Big Lake from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Dec. 17.

Lockhart said there are still a few appointments left. If people want to donate, call her at 240-8116.

The couple plans to close their shop at the end of the year to focus all their energy on her health.

“I told John, if there was anything I could do to benefit the community from being sick, I would do it,” Lockhart said. “That’s what I am here for on this earth — to help other people, if I can.”

Lockhart and Erskine moved to Big Lake from Anchorage about 10 years ago, bought a home on a small lake and set about transforming it into the flowering paradise that is the Lockhart & Erskine Garden.

“I am so thankful for John’s support,” Lockhart said. “He’s my rock in so many ways.”

She said the community’s support since this hat trick of horrors began has strengthened her love for this place and its people.

“It’s been an outpouring of love and true compassion from everyone,” she said. “God bless this small community. It’s the only place in the world to live as far as I am concerned.”

Friends of the family have set up an account for their benefit at Matanuska Valley Federal Credit Union. The account number is 135347-LO.

Also, people may make donations through the Shared Branching network at Denali Alaska Federal Credit Union using the same account number.

Contact Heather A. Resz at heather.resz@frontiersman.com or 352-2268.