By Mike Pound
The Joplin Globe

JOPLIN, Mo.

I laughed Tuesday when I played back the message Sue VanLue left on my
phone.
"Thought you would get a kick out of this. My husband went hunting and he
got a doe last night," is what Sue said.
Sue was right, I did get a kick out the news. Sue's husband is Tim VanLue.
Some five years ago, I did a series of stories about Tim and Sue. Tim was
severely injured in a farming accident on June 3, 2002. As a result of the
accident, doctors were forced to amputate both of Tim¹s arms. I first met
Tim and Sue later that same summer. I asked the Diamond couple if I and then
Globe photographer Noppadol Paothong could follow them around for a year.
They didn't blink an eye.
"Sure" is pretty much what they said and they opened up their lives to us.
For most of the next year, Noppadol and I did what I said we would. We
followed them around. We went to Tim's doctor's appointments. We sat in
their house and listened while Sue fought lengthy and numerous battles with
insurance companies. We followed Tim to work. We went with Tim and Sue to
Dallas, where Tim was fitted for prosthetic arms. We watched Tim struggle
with the arms and finally pretty much discard them.
But mainly, we laughed with Tim and Sue. Mainly we marveled at the
incredible spirit, strength, courage and good humor that they exhibited
throughout the year we spent with them.
I remember, not too long after the accident, how Tim, tired of waiting on
his prosthetic arms, took an arm from a drafting-table lamp and a strap from
a WeedEater to make his own "arm" so he could operate his dozer at work
sites. I remember how, a few years later, Sue called to tell me that Tim and
some friends had rigged a car so he could drive. Tim wasn't driving far, Sue
said, and he was staying off the main roads, but he was driving. I remember
when I ran into Tim and asked him about his driving. He just grinned and
said it was no big deal. But that's Tim. Nothing, other than perhaps his
family and friends, is a big deal to him. He is pretty much the definition
of "laid back."
So no, I wasn¹t surprised Tuesday to hear that Tim had managed to shoot a
deer. I mean, I thought it was funny, but I wasn't surprised.
I called Sue back. I told her I had one question about Tim¹s hunting
accomplishment.
"Uh, how?" I think is what I said.
Sue laughed. She told me that last year Tim's nephew, knowing that Tim
missed deer hunting, gave him a gun with a remote trigger for Christmas.
"Well, that gun really didn't work right but Tim got to tinkering with it
and you know Tim, when he gets to tinkering, he came up with one that
works," she said.
Basically, what Tim did was come up with a pole that a rifle could be
mounted on. The pole allows the rifle to swivel back and forth so Tim can
"aim" the rifle. Tim also rigged a remote trigger that can be trigged by
pushing or stepping on a button. And Monday night, using his invention, Tim
got his first deer since his accident.
You know how I mentioned that Tim is pretty laid back? Well, Sue told me Tim
was not exactly laid back when he called her with the news.
"Oh, he was excited," Sue said.
I asked Sue if Tim was still driving. She said he was. But, she said, his
driving is pretty much restricted to getting around job sites or to back
roads near their rural Diamond home. Tim, she said, avoids main roads. Tim
also rigged up a riding lawn mower so he can mow their lawn. Tim, she said,
pretty much does whatever he wants. Although sometimes Tim's resourcefulness
at home seems to disappear when Sue's around.
"It's amazing what he can do when I'm not here and what he can't do when I¹m
home," she said with a laugh.
I told Sue it was good to hear from her and it was. It's funny. You can
spend pretty much a year with some folks and then go a couple years without
talking to them. But that's how things go. We get busy with our lives. Tim
and Sue have been busy keeping track of their oldest son, Jake, who works
for Tim's construction company and their daughter, Katelin, who is now a
senior in high school, and my wife and I have been busy keeping track of our
daughter.
It's probably been two years since I last ran into Tim or Sue. But Tuesday,
when I played Sue's phone message and listened to her story, I laughed. Not
just because it was funny, although it was. But because it's just another
example of a remarkable couple still doing remarkable things. And still
being able to laugh.

Mike Pound writes for The Joplin (Mo.) Globe.

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Tim Van Lue was severely injured in a farming accident on June 3, 2002. As a result of the
accident, doctors were forced to amputate both of Tim's arms.

Globe/John D. Rank