Timberley (TJ) Armstrong, 26, looks out onto the empty sports field of Maryville High School, from which she graduated in 2019. When she revisited the school, TJ said that high school was the best time of her life. After high school, TJ took a job at Kentucky Fried Chicken, where she has proudly worked for six years. 

TJ had the words Don’t Hurt Me, surrounded by a barbed-wire heart, tattooed on her forearm after the end of an abusive relationship. For her, it’s a way of telling people not to hurt her, without having to say the words. “My mom also loves the tattoo,” she said.

TJ hugs her boyfriend of four years, Bobby Douglas, next to a costumed dummy that he and his housemates made outside of the group housing where he resides. Bobby has lived within the Associated Group Homes for several years since his conviction, and looks forward to his freedom next month, where he will have a cell phone and more unsupervised mobility. TJ and Bobby’s time together is restricted and supervised.

TJ shares a playful moment in her living room with her therapy dog, Honey, who is an Irish Doodle.

Twice weekly, TJ spends time at Horace Mann Hall in Northwest Missouri State University with a community of people with a diversity of disabilities. In preparation for the gatherings, TJ gathers board games and reads the instructions of new ones, so that she might help people learn and play together. TJ walks from the games room to the gymnasium with Kristy King (known as KK) next to her, and an assortment of students who gain “diversity hours” college credits for time spent helping with this community. 

TJ plays Sequence with Ellen Bledsoe, who works with Beyond Abilities in Maryville. Twice weekly, TJ gathers with people with a diversity of disabilities to play games and socialize. While TJ is part of the community as someone with autism and ADHD, she also takes on a volunteer helper role to the people with more severe disabilities. 

TJ’s “home away from home” is the Bearcat Lanes bowling alley in Maryville. There, she is part of the bowling Special Olympics group which plays together on Monday nights. On Sept. 24, 2026, TJ brought eight personal bowling balls to the alley with her.

TJ attends the Special Olympics bowling league on Monday nights at the Bearcat Lanes bowling alley. She says that the lanes are her “home away from home.” The group consists of people with a diversity of disabilities. On Sept. 21, 2026, TJ cheers on Glenda Fluke, middle, along with Dom (last name unknown), who is one of Glenda’s caregivers. “Glenda is my favorite. Ok, everyone is my favorite,” TJ said of Glenda. 

Twice weekly, TJ gets together with a group of people with disabilities and she loves it when Bobby also attends. Because his time is restricted and their time together supervised, TJ relishes every moment they have. Bobby is known as the Connect4 King, which is the game that none of the college students can beat him at. 

TJ sits on a swinging chair with Bobby. They switch shoes and laugh together while under the supervision of a guardian at Bobby’s group home.

TJ lives in a government-subsidized home in Maryville with her mother, Angela Armstrong; her brother, Tayten Biehle; Midnight the black cat; and Honey the Irish Doodle. TJ admits that sometimes she and her brother fight. Like TJ, Tayten also had autism and ADHD. 

TJ goes out with her grandmother, Susan Growcock, 73, to weed and change the flowers of her great-aunt and other family members’ grave stones in Maryville. It’s one of the outings that Susan likes to bring TJ on. At the Oakhill Cemetery, TJ crouches to pull weeds and admire the toy cats they’ve placed around the grave stone, which are becoming weathered, and they wonder whether they should be replaced.

TJ lies under the covers, cuddling her Stitch stuffy and enjoying surfing websites like TEMU and TikTok for several hours. She sleeps in and TJ says that she enjoys spending her time this way, in the quiet of her room, and never opens her curtains. “This is how I spend most of my time”, TJ explains. She is often tired and her grandmother, Susan Growcock, worries that she sleeps a lot.