PRYOR — Some say sports are life. In this case, the expression couldn’t be more true.
“She just really fell into a shell, a really deep shell,” Martha DeCrane recalled of her daughter Lawren’s emotions within the last few years. “I just was so wrapped up in my own grieving (after losing my mother), I wasn’t paying attention to Lawren and how it really affected her as well.”
“I couldn’t believe it … because this was my little sister,” said older brother Blake DeCrane upon learning of Lawren’s despairing grief. “I’d seen her grow up; she always had a smile on her face. Yeah, it was just hard to see.
“Honestly, I was in shock. I just gave her space. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know how to handle the situation. That’s the first time that’s ever happened to me … having a family member suicidal or having those thoughts come into their minds.”
Depression’s warning signs didn’t stand out for Lawren’s family or to those who knew her at school.
“You get emotional about it because you see so many kids you don’t exactly know what’s going on,” said Beau Malia, who coaches wrestling and girls flag football at Lockwood High School.
Lockwood activities director Mike Erickson struggles with the thought as well.
BRANDON SULLIVAN/MTN SPORTS
“Yeah, I get emotional … every time I talk about it,” Erickson said with tearful eyes.
Four years ago, as COVID tipped the world upside down, the weight of its impact initiated Lawren’s downward spiral.
She would shoulder one painful heartache after another in rapid manor. Lawren lost four close relatives, including two to COVID, and two of her grandparents. The last straw was losing her grandmother on the same day Lawren’s Plenty Coups basketball team won a district championship.
“This is a picture of the day she lost her grandmother and the day she became a district champ,” Martha said while holding a photo she keeps on her refrigerator.
Lawren recalls it vividly.
“It was one of the hardest days of my life, one of the hardest games I ever played. But also a really big day for me, too, because we won,” Lawren said. “I made one point in that whole game. I just … was too heartbroken.”
Graduating from Plenty Coups High School in Pryor, Lawren’s three older brothers realized the difficulty of growing up on Montana’s reservations. Along with their parents, the brothers encouraged a transfer for Lawren to Lockwood’s new high school her freshman year, and the brothers, now living there, would help with the transition. Lawren agreed to the transfer but not until the start of her junior year.
“We felt like a new environment and a new surrounding would help build her character back up and make her smile again, you know,” Blake said.
