Backing off the hammer
Ron and Jan Huey face medical tragedy with the same spirit that brought them show truck awards and countless friends in trucking
By Charlie Morasch
staff writer
Ron and Jan Huey pulled into Springdale, OH, two days after Christmas to pick up a load of sausage and then head south and east to coastal states. It was a trip they’d made every week for nearly 15 years to supply grocers in North and South Carolina.
The route had paid for the Huey’s house, put food on the table and helped them raise three daughters.
A much shorter trip, however, would alter Ron and Jan’s lives forever.
After finding that the load wouldn’t be ready until early evening, the couple decided to kill some time and eat a late lunch.
“If you just want to go up there and get me a sandwich ...” Ron recalled telling Jan that afternoon, as he pointed up the road a couple blocks to a restaurant they knew in Springdale, a suburb just north of Cincinnati.
Next, Ron remembered his cell phone showing Jan was calling. On the other end, however, was a police officer telling him to get to the hospital.
As Jan had walked across the road to the restaurant, a pickup truck quickly turned onto the street and rammed into her, sending Jan barreling onto the hood and into the truck’s windshield.
The impact broke her left femur and caused her neck to whiplash.
The whiplash tore a blood vessel, causing a slight stroke that left her unable to move her right side.
To make matters worse, Jan was ticketed for jaywalking. Ron said he has witnesses who said Jan didn’t do anything wrong and the family has hired an attorney to fight the citation.
As Jan was lying in the hospital, unable to speak, Ron knew they’d hauled their last load together.
Days in intensive care and weeks in the hospital would be followed by a stay inside the Drake Center rehabilitation clinic in Cincinnati until the end of January.
Ron couldn’t continue to haul and leave Jan behind – even though her parents lived nearby.
“It’s no big deal,” Ron told Land Line Magazine. “It just didn’t feel right taking off and leaving and while I’m on the road, worrying about them.”
A lifelong bond
In August, Ron and Jan will celebrate their 35th wedding anniversary.
They met through Jan’s brother, Norman, during high school when they were running around together in Decatur County, IN.
They married in 1972, and Ron took a job at Shirk’s International dealership in Greensburg.
He worked at the dealership for five years before taking up life on the road, buying the first of several International trucks from Shirk’s.
Jan didn’t begin regularly accompanying Ron until the kids had been raised and left the house. She worked as a traveling nurse for residents who needed in-home care. She enjoyed meeting and working with her patients, Ron said.
When the couple began as a driving team, their extra time together sparked a new hobby – customizing their truck for truck shows.
Jan has always enjoyed talking to people they met at truck shows much more than polishing the truck, Ron said.
“She likes to be around people, she’s always talking,” he said, laughing.
The Hueys – OOIDA members since 1990 – had most recently customized their 2000 International with pinstripes, wood floors, custom cabinets and stainless steel deck plates.
“It’s about as clean as it was with a thousand miles,” Ron said. “I’m a real stickler on cleaning.”
Hanging ’em up
Jan’s temporary paralysis shocked the family.
Despite spending much of her time on the road, Jan remained an independent, athletic woman, said Christina Newby, the couple’s youngest daughter.
Jan took trips by herself to hike mountains in Colorado and in Tennessee, and was an avid walker.
The accident surprised family members because Jan was always concerned about safety, Christina said.
“We know our mom – she’s very cautious. It’s not like she would just go out and walk in front of someone.”
Regardless of the accident’s circumstances, the Huey family quickly focused on reality.
Ron made the decision to give up trucking and put off retirement so Jan could be taken care of.
He’d sell their silver International that the team drivers polished nearly every weekend and proudly displayed at truck shows.
They’d give up the weekly route up to Cincinnati and down to the Carolinas, and would give up showing off the International tractor that brought them 61 trophies and four best of show awards.
Ron was able to go back to Shirk’s and get a job at the dealership he left for the highway 30 years ago.
The job allows Ron to assist Jan with her five hours of rehabilitation every day and still provide service to many of the long haulers he’s met on the road.
“I’ve come full circle,” he said.
Help from friends
On Jan. 25, Ron took Jan home from the rehab clinic. It was the first time she’d been home in more than a month after the couple had left for what would become their last haul.
“Oh yeah, she’s glad to be here,” Ron said in a phone interview minutes after Jan went home. “She’ll be sleeping in her own bed tonight.”
The Huey family faces a long road ahead, Christina acknowledged.
The stroke temporarily impaired Jan’s ability to move her right side, including her leg and arm. She continues to have trouble talking since the accident.
Ron said he understands about a third of what she says, but doctors tell the Hueys that Jan will continue to improve as her muscles relearn movement patterns.
The family has set up a donation fund to help defray some of Jan’s medical expenses, which had topped $100,000 by mid-January.
Anyone may donate by mail to:
The Janice Huey Fund
c/o Irwin Union Bank
PO Box 929
Columbus, IN 47202
John Morrell Meats, the company the Hueys were waiting to haul for before the accident, is also collecting donations in Springdale, OH, Ron said.
Only days before Ron spoke to Land Line Magazine, the couple received a get well soon card in the mail from one of Jan’s former clients when she worked as a traveling nurse for elderly and handicapped patients.
Enclosed was $100.
Ron asked Land Line to make sure the couple’s friends and supporters in trucking were thanked for sending their prayers, phone calls and messages.
“You find out who your friends are when something like this happens,” he said.
