(Submitted to the Outpost by Jana’s father, Tim.)

Jana Marie Cochrane

November 21, 1976 ~ January 9, 2015

A celebration of Jana Cochrane’s life will be held on Tuesday evening, January 13th from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. at Gallagher’s Irish Pub, 2nd & C Streets in Eureka. Please bring your remembrances and Jana stories. If you have pictures you would like to share, they may be emailed to Larissa Caldwell larissa1@suddenlink.net or you may bring them with you.

Jana was the first-born child of Tim and Marie Cochrane, arriving in the middle of a terrible snow storm in Mt. Shasta, California. She was soon joined by her Irish twin Laura Ann in 1978 and when the family returned to Eureka, Dorothy Loree and Rebecca Elizabeth joined the Cochrane Sisterhood.

Living in Eureka, Jana and her sisters were able to grow up near great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on both sides of the family, developing close relationships with each of them. This gave Jana a strong sense of Family, knowing exactly who she was and where she fit in with the scheme of things. When she was only 19 months old, she met her life-long friend Larissa Goodwyn Caldwell, spending many wonderful years exploring the canyons and redwoods of Walnut Avenue, the sidewalks and nooks and crannies of Henderson Center and camping on the banks of the Mattole River. Once she entered elementary school she met Leah Story Kortyka, another fast friend and life-long intimate who shared Jana’s love of camping, exploring, sweating the details and reinforcing their respective need for establishing some kind of order in the chaos of the universe as well as in the lives of their parents and sisters. One can imagine that this often led to some amount of conflict and consternation, however it proved to be a great training ground for Jana’s well-honed penchant for telling it like it is, where to stick it (if necessary), and people would even later thank her for having the guts to tell the truth. She spared no one - Mom, Dad, her sisters, friends, co-workers or even some hapless individual in a retail environment.

Jana attended local schools, graduating Eureka Senior High School in 1994. Jana began her financial services career when she began working after school and on weekends in the back room at Six Rivers National Bank. She could keyboard like the wind, maintain accuracy and reliably put out reams of work. After high school, she worked for a brief time for a dot com and then Ralph Lauren in the Bay Area, a bank in Southern California and then returned to Humboldt County working for Yakima, Security National and in the brokerage field. She ultimately found her niche at Hospice of Humboldt where she worked in community outreach. Along the way she developed many lasting friendships - people whom she met at the gym, Starbucks, random folks she encountered in a variety of circumstances and, with FaceBook, many close relationships with people whom she had met only online, yet never in person.

Jana always made time to spend on her beloved Mattole River, quite often in it even when she was unable to enlist others to enter the frigid February waters. More often than not, her weekends and vacation time were spent enjoying the beauty of the area, playing cards around the campfire and enjoying the banter among her family and friends over one too many cocktails. Spending the night in her sleeping bag rolled out under the stars was way better than the best five-star hotel. And the things that invariably went bump in the night? That may have spooked others but Jana wasn’t afraid of anything.

Jana loved and developed special relationships with each of her nieces and nephews. She was in the delivery room when each of them was born, jubilant about the miracle of life and their arrivals to the family. Whether it was floating down the river with Kaden and Hunter, helping teach Makenzie and Tig to swim, being there to fish Hazel out of the water or to reassure Sharon that the water wouldn’t be cold for long, Jana was always doing something with those kids, her kids. Sleepovers at Jana’s place were frequent events even if she had to drive all the way out to Mattole to pick the kids up, bring them back to Eureka for the weekend and then take them back home. Going to the movies and gorging on popcorn and candy, running along the boardwalk, seeing the monkeys at the zoo, taking them shopping - even teaching them that when one was in town, it was required to stay on the sidewalk, even if there were no sidewalks back home in the Mattole Valley. She attended basketball and soccer games, school programs and was always there for her nieces and nephews, never complaining about a 90-mile round trip on a week night. She had unconditional love, loyalty and a firm hand when necessary to keep rambunctious spirits in check. Jana had always wanted to have children of her own, but was waiting for that special man to come along in her life. She would have made a terrific Mom. Instead, she was a terrific and one-of-a-kind Auntie. The absolute best.

Somehow, Jana found time to travel despite her affliction with motion sickness. It was worth it, she said, because once she reached her destination, she was so intrigued with the beauty of the people, their cities and countryside and the sometimes strange cuisine she was introduced to. It was a well known fact that Jana hated to fly. Besides business travel, she took several pleasure trips over the years, visiting friends across the States, traveling to Ireland to visit Leah, Australia to see Becky and going to Russia, England, Turkey and Greece.

In 2013, she met Doug DeShiell. The two immediately learned that they were soul mates, became best friends and made plans to marry in August of this year. “Doug is the best thing who has ever happened to me!” she often told family and friends. After being around the two of them, it was immediately evident to all of us that their love was the real deal. She was ecstatically happy. Happy with her life partner, her family, her friends, her Labrador retriever Carlie that Doug and she recently brought into their home.

Alas, God had other plans for Jana and on Friday afternoon of January 9th, she was suddenly taken from us. We do not understand, nor will we ever understand why such a smart, loving, talented and funny Jana could be struck down at the prime of her life. Of small comfort, she went out on a high - passionately in love, loved and extraordinarily happy in her family, work and social life. She packed a lot of quality regret-free living in her brief 38 years with us.

Jana leaves behind her fiancé Douglas DeShiell and her Labrador retriever Carlie, of Eureka; parents Tim and Marie Cochrane of Ettersburg; sister Laura and husband Charlie Schuttloffel of Ettersburg; sister Dottie and husband Kelton Chambers of Petrolia; sister Becky Cochrane and fiancé Jason Sheets of Eureka; the brother she never had, Mike “Cutter” Wilcutt and partner Faith Litke of Eureka; her best friend and partner in crime, Kelly Flynn; her incredibly loved nieces and nephews Sharon, Tig and Hazel Schuttloffel of Ettersburg and Kaden, Hunter and Makenzie Chambers of Petrolia; aunts and uncles Lowell Mengel; Ward and Christine Mengel; Russ and Donna Mengel; Patsy Newmaker; Sham and Pam Cochrane; Leslie and Dennis Burchfield; Cyndee Cochrane; and many cousins and dear friends who are sadly, too numerous to mention in this brief space.

Rest in peace, Jana. While we are no longer together on this earth, we will see you again.