May - Wingspan

May 2, 2011wingspan.lccc.wy.edufeaturesWingspan 39CourtesyThrough the years:Rick Bonnema, left, reunited with his familyafter nearly a three-year prison sentence.Bonnema, center, builds his dream garage.Life on the honor farm in Riverton, Wyo.,right.“I can look back at that lifestyle, and it was nothingbut sheer hell for me, and I didn’t want that. I wantedto go back to my old life, like back before I went into theservice as far as the hunting and fishing and things like that.I wanted to live a normal life.~Rick BonnemaAfter being sentenced one to threeyears, Bonnema had lost it all. His wifewent to prison for accessory; his daughterlived with grandparents in Las Vegas;and everything he owned was gone. Inthat instance and moment of claritywhile behind the walls, Bonnema realizedit was time to make a change forhimself and his family.“Prison changed me,” Bonnema said.“I tried to utilize everything that I couldto better myself. I took classes while Iwas in prison. I got two certificates formechanical drafting and architecturaldrafting that helped me get my job here,that and the fact I’ve been a carpenter mywhole life.”After spending two years and eightmonths behind bars, Bonnema wasreleased for good behavior and theprograms he had completed in prison.Already earning college credits, Bonnemadecided to lay down new roots inCheyenne and attend Laramie CountyCommunity College.The life of drugs and crime were overfor Bonnema.“I just didn’t want that lifestyle everagain,” Bonnema said. “I was sick ofbeing sick. I was sick of the whole scenario,the people you get involved with,the things you have to do to support it,all of it. You aren’t afraid of anything, andyou aren’t thinking straight when you areon heroin.”A longtime friend, Kevin Neumeyer,met Bonnema in prison and reconnectedwith him at a minimum security lockupin Cheyenne.“Rick has come a long way, and I amso happy to see him finally living a drugfree,happy life,” Neumeyer said. “Rickis a good guy and a great friend, and it istruly amazing what he has done with hislife. He came from nothing, and he reallyturned his life around.”With a clean slate, and his familytogether again, Bonnema not only gota fresh start in life and school, he alsolanded a full-time job at LCCC in themaintenance plant where he could usethe skills learned in prison and return tohis first love of carpentry that he learnedfrom his grandfather.Times were still hard for Bonnemaand his family in Cheyenne as Karencontinued to struggle with her addiction.With the stress and severity of itall, Bonnema and Karen eventuallydivorced, but the pair always stayedclose and helped raise Megan together.Even though Bonnema stayed on thestraight path, it was hard for him to seethe person he had spent nearly 20 yearswith continue in that lifestyle and selfmedicate.However, on July 21, 1999, after beingdiagnosed as a manic depressive andbipolar, Karen eventually lost her battlewith addiction and died of upper respiratorydistress syndrome and pneumonia.“The day she left, she said: ‘Here, youtake care of Megan. She is better off withyou than me,’” Bonnema said. “That’s”the last time I saw her. She called methe day before she died and wanted tocome back, and I told her no, you can’t. Icouldn’t let her come back because everytime she came back, she would tear medown and financially ruin me. I couldn’ttake that.”After the loss of his ex-wife, Bonnemacontinued to stay strong and never againreturned to his old way of life. Bonnemais living the life he always dreamed ofand pictured as a 14-year old boy inMinnesota. Hunting, fishing and camping,going to work and applying hisconstruction trade are all Bonnema waslooking for.“I can look back at that lifestyle, andit was nothing but sheer hell for me,and I didn’t want that,” Bonnema said.“I wanted to go back to my old life, likeback before I went into the service as faras the hunting and fishing and things likethat. I wanted to live a normal life.”Now in his 14 th year at LCCC,Bonnema is a senior architectural maintenancetechnician and is enjoying hisnormal life.Travis Shoopman, agriculture equinefacility manager at LCCC, who hasworked with Bonnema for 11 years, said:” Of all the people here, Rick is the No. 1guy to help with anything. He would giveyou the shirt of his back.”Although Bonnema learned a lotthroughout the years, he doesn’t liketo think about the past and all the wildtwists and turns his life took. In a way,Bonnema is very grateful for whathappened to him on the highway thatSeptember day and gave him his secondchance at life.“It’s neat that he got a second chance,”Shoopman said. “He was at a real crossroadin his life, and it was either goingto go real bad or real good. You don’t seethat very often.”By going to prison, Bonnema kickedhis drug habit and turned his life aroundfor the better, something that didn’t lookpossible up to that point.“I don’t know if we would have evermade it to Minnesota,” Bonnema said.“I think eventually I would’ve stoppedat another drugstore, and they would’veshot me. If I wouldn’t have got stoppedhere and went to jail, I don’t think Iwould’ve been alive for much longer. Iwas sick. We were like Bonnie and Clyde.”Now at age 55, with his trademarkhandlebar mustache, blond ponytail andhis booming voice, Bonnema is lookingforward to the next 10 years of his life.Working at LCCC, hunting in the fall andtaking his new boat to the lake this summer,Bonnema loves his new, normal life.With ever-going renovations to his houseand garage, Bonnema is looking forwardto making everything around him better.“I am always trying to better myselfone way or the other,” Bonnema said.And as far as ever going back to his oldlifestyle, you can forget about that, too.“It was hell! That’s not something I amever going back to, ever!”