OGDEN – Sue Voges wasn’t one to go silently into the night.
Indeed, the 53-year-old Ogden woman engaged the cancer she had for 11 years with an indomitable spirit to the end, which came Monday morning at her home where she was surrounded by family and friends.
While many cancer victims go down fighting, those who knew Voges well say what may have set her apart was her willingness to share her experience to help others with their own health care decisions or to just brighten their day.
And because of Voges, more than $130,000 was raised for the Mills Breast Cancer Institute at Carle.
“When you’re diagnosed and see the writing on the wall, you have a tendency to open up and be more honest and outgoing and make people more at ease,” Tim Voges theorized about why his wife was the way she was.
They learned of her breast cancer just weeks before their wedding in June 1999. They had been dating seven years.
“I’m a much better person than I was when we got married 11 years ago because of what she shared and the things I learned,” he said. “If it’s possible to have a good experience from cancer, we had it because of the support of family and friends.”
Now a captain at the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, Tim Voges turned his attention first to his wife and second to raising money for breast cancer research. He is one of four Champaign County deputies who have lost their wives to cancer in the last 10 years.
“The fundraising was my outlet and my way of keeping my sanity,” he said. “She wasn’t somebody who initially wanted to share her story, but after she thought about it, she said, ‘I’m doing this for you but to also raise awareness and to help out a lot of other people.’”
And help she did. Voges said his wife frequently shared her library of literature and her own experience with others who were virtual strangers.
On a trip to Carle just weeks before her death, at a time when she was in great pain, Sue Voges stopped to chat with and hug a woman, her husband said. Asking her later who it was, Sue didn’t know the woman’s name but recognized her as someone who went through radiation with her and was scared.
The woman “was so grateful. (Sue’s gesture) had touched her heart,” he said, adding that scene was replayed over and over in their years together.
“We could never go anywhere and get there on time because she saw someone and had to stop and talk, even strangers in the check-out lane,” said Cathy Morris of Georgetown, Sue’s older sister by 17 months, who was often confused for Sue because of their similar looks. The girls were raised in Georgetown by their late parents, J.C. and Martha Dill.
Her best friend for almost 30 years, Barb Callaghan, 55, of Champaign, recalled a time when she and Sue were shopping and came across a lady in her 80s searching for an Easter dress. The woman’s 60-something-year-old son was not able to offer much help.
“The next thing I know, we’re in the dressing room helping this lady. She got two dresses. That’s what Sue does. Wherever we go, she extended herself,” said Callaghan, who was introduced to her husband by Voges more than 20 years ago.
Voges was an Illinois State trooper for 25 years, retiring from the force on Jan. 31 even though her health had kept her from working for the last few months. A colleague donated sick time so Sue could continue to be paid until her retirement.
State Police Director Jonathon Monken and a handful of administrators and union representatives came to her home three weeks ago to present her with her retirement badge.
“Everybody respected Sue and knew her reputation,” said fellow trooper Ed Woods of Chatham, who was there. “She gave the state police 120 percent on her worst day.”
Woods worked for 22 years with Voges, both as a trooper on the road and in investigations.
“It was nothing for her to spend money out of her own pocket to buy people meals, put gas in their tanks, take hitchhikers farther than she should have,” Woods said – even those who gave her fits.
“I would say, ‘Sue, why are you helping that person?’ She would say, ‘Because it’s the right thing to do,’” Woods said.
Woods said his colleague was a devoted member of the Fraternal Order of Police union – always bringing her famous home-baked goodies to the meetings – and twice turned down promotions to master sergeant so she could remain in the bargaining unit as a trustee.
Master Sgt. Tom Houser of Sullivan knew Voges from the job but not well until 2001, when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Sue called his wife to she if she could answer questions. A year later, Houser ended up working with Voges in investigations.
“It’s a good bond when you know what someone’s been through. Sue’s had 20 times more of a fight than I had, but it’s still a bond that puts you closer to a person than just being a co-worker,” he said. “Sue could be having the worst day she was ever having as a cancer patient, sicker than a dog, and somebody would need something and she was the first one there.”
Woods said the state police was the No. 2 priority on Voges’ list, right behind her family.
Last fall, Voges bought a new handicapped-accessible van for her sister Deb, who cares for their older sister Shirley, 60, who has Down syndrome, and a younger foster sister, Sheri, 38, who has cerebral palsy.
Tim Voges said he swallowed hard at the thought of the hefty expenditure but had his “reality check” about Sue’s short time left when she told him she wanted her sisters to have reliable transportation to come see her when she could no longer visit them.
“She was trying to think ahead,” he said.
Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services