This a story packed with emotion – it is filled with romance, love, dedication, elation and devastation, and it is full of intrigue and strange co-incidences.

This is a story of a couple who finally, in their late forties find the love of their life, marry, and then are forced apart by government beuocracy, out of reach indefinitely it seems, on opposite sides of the world.

But yet, a story of a couple who are determined to be together, no matter the odds. Susha, an Australian, and Steve, an American, met and married in the US late last year. Yet just days before they were due to marry, it was discovered seemingly by accident that Steve¹s mother, Helen, had a massive brain tumour. And unbelievably within just eight weeks of their wedding, Susha was back in Australia, sitting in a Brisbane doctor¹s office being told that she too had a brain tumour.

She had returned to Australia to wait for permanent US residency status before she could return to her husband and start a new life. Steve had stayed in the US to help his mother through rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.

He was expecting his new wife to return to him within a few months. They planned to settle in a quaint country town called Jim Thorpe, known as America¹s Little Switzerland. So when he got a desperate plea on his answering machine at two o’clock one morning (his time), he knew something was horribly wrong.
He was to find the two most important women in his life, had stepped into the same nightmare. And he was right in there with them.

* * *
Susha Shulenski, 49, has spent the past 10 or so years as an ³experimental¹¹ fashion designer whose unique and innovative designs are sought after in boutiques right across Australia.

She met her husband Steve, on an internet forum in early 2003. Steve, 48, was born and raised in the valley town of Wilkes-Barre in Pennsylvania. He is a specialist pet photographer who also publishes books and videos on the subject.

Although both artisans, Steve and Susha had both felt in reality they were budding entrepreneurs seeking ways to enrich each of their lives through alternative means. So it was on the site based on Wallace Wattles¹ ³The Science Of Getting Rich¹¹at www.scienceofgettingrich.net that they first became aware of each other.

³It was not a tacky internet romance¹¹, Susha insists of what transpired from her out-of-character foray on to the World Wide Web. ³I don¹t really belong in the technological age. I had resisted computers for so long.¹¹ ³My friends still can¹t believe I met my husband on the internet, because I am just not computer savvy.¹¹
‘ There was just such an honesty and sincerity about him that I was drawn ’

The pair found the phone much less frustrating and suddenly they were having conversations that lasted for hours. ³We had so much in common,¹¹ Susha remembers. For five months they talked every day. ³We dined together. We would have breakfast, lunch and dinner on the phone . . . the best dinner dates ever – we would talk for hours about our aspirations, books we’d read, argue politics – we both felt incredibly connected, we could talk about anything. ¹¹ she says.

The feeling of wanting to get together was mutual, she says, and when things freed up for her in Brisbane, she decided to take the plunge and go visit Steve in the US. ³I thought why not?¹ I had fewer ties than he with work, so it was easier for me. I thought I would go and see if this person was who I thought he was.¹¹
‘So I sold up virtually everything I owned and took the chance . . .a man I had never met, to a country I’d never been to and knew virtually no-one . . . but hey, it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I found a man who brought me breakfast in bed every morning, who massaged my feet and loved me, as we all deserve to be loved. He is not exactly a millionaire (yet), but he is the kindest, most considerate man I have ever met and I love him.”


Two and a half weeks after her arrival, Steve proposed and they began planning their wedding for December 11 - just a small affair in the local county courthouse. Helen, Steve’s mother was to be one witness and 90-year-old Ben, Steve’s landlord was to be the other.

It was not till the planning of the wedding the couple discovered both their sets of parents had in fact married the very same day – 11th July, 1953 - 50 years earlier, but on opposite sides of the world.
Everything was going well till December 5, when Steve¹s mother set off on a two-hour afternoon car trip to spend the weekend with a young friend who had become like family.

She never arrived and frantic overnight searches turned up nothing. ‘We finally went to bed about 4am and when I rose a few hours later I went to the window and pulled back the curtain, it was the first time in my life I saw real snow, I’d seen a few flurries whilst we were driving, but this was different – it had snowed about 6 or 8 inches and as we had driven up to where Helen had been going, we were in country America and it was so beautiful . . . typical country American houses with all their green and red festive trimmings, looked like something straight off the front of a Christmas card . All this wonder only to be followed by the thought of the cold and the fear that Helen had probably run off the road into some bush and somehow no-one had noticed her and she was probably freezing to death.”

Meanwhile unknown to Steve and Susha, early that morning some snow ploughers found Mrs Shulenski standing next to her car, dazed and out of petrol. 130 miles from where she was supposed to be, she had driven all night. Claiming she had just taken a wrong turn she asked that they call AAA, but hey decided to call an ambulance instead and she was taken to a nearby hospital.
“ The doctors there ran checks on her . . . so imagine our elation at finding her, only to turn into disbelief at the news that Helen has a brain tumor the size of an egg in her right frontal lobe.” We just kind of went with the flow for the next couple of days while the hospital did more tests and decided to do surgery on December 10 – the day before our planned wedding, by now we were numb with everything anyway. After surgery the neurologist came and told us it had gone well, but in fact it had turned out the tumor was the size of an orange, but for now she had come through the surgery but would need further treatment with radiation and chemotherapy.”

³We didn¹t want to go ahead without her, but we were worried if we cancelled the wedding, I wouldn’t be able to stay with Steve,¹¹ says Susha. As Helen was stable, they went ahead with the ceremony but cancelled the planned reception. Unfortunately, the pair discovered Susha would have to return to Australia anyway until her residency papers were complete. ³We just presumed I could stay once we were married, but because I was on a visa waiver, I still had to leave and come back.¹¹ Torn, but reminding each other they would be back together again in a just couple of months, Steve farewelled Susha at JFK on January 28, 2004.

Back in Brisbane, Susha visited her doctor, she had been suffering subtle symptoms for some time, they’d run all sorts of tests but nothing showed up. Remembering that when in the US, Susha was told by a chiropractor she was probably suffering from a pinched nerve in her neck but maybe she should have an MRI when she returned to Australia, she suggested the idea to her doctor.

When the doctor told me I had a tumour a couple of weeks later, I thought you¹ve got my results mixed up with someone else¹s. There¹s no way I could have a brain tumour¹,¹¹ she says.

Susha¹s tumour is a benign meninginoma, 1.5cm in diameter originating from the lining between her brain and the skull. These sorts of tumours affect 1 in 100,000 people and most sufferers’ don¹t know they have them until they are at least 3cm in diameter.

So after living with this knowledge for three weeks without knowing anything about her specific condition, Susha’s neurologist informed her these tumours are slow-growing and her’s appears to be calcified, that in fact it could have been there for months, even years. He said there are always risks with surgery and he would like to wait for two months and see if there are any changes.

“So right now, I still have about 3 weeks to go till the end of those two months, I have moved up to be with my parents, they are very kind and loving, but I miss my husband. Most times I handle the waiting well, but sometimes I cry myself to sleep, all I want right now is to be able to be wrapt up in his arms, snuggled into his chest and feeling like everything is going to be alright.

‘I try to live one day at a time, we are back to being on the phone a couple of hours a day – the whole thing’s so crazy, kind of surreal, like this can’t possibly be MY life. The thing that keeps me going is the belief that there’s got to be greater purpose to this than is obvious.’
“We did have some good news last week though, in that Helen’s neurologist said her tumour has either completely disappeared or shrunk to the size of a pea. (Just thought how interesting that they describe the size of these things in terms of food! Peas! Oranges! Eggs!)
Waiting the two months has given me time to work with a Chinese Professor of Medicine in Brisbane, which is promising; unfortunately it costs me $500 every time I step into his office for the consultation and herbs, etc. In trying to heal myself, I approached Centrelink for Sickness Allowance Benefit till the neurosurgeon decided what we should do, unfortunately I don’t qualify because I don’t have an employer and don’t have any written contracts for my work, so right now I standing in the dole queue, looking for jobs every week.
And Steve, well he’s been running around taking his mother to hospitals and doctors for the past 4 or 5 months taking time off work . . . so now that things have freed up with his mother, he’s working frantically at raising funds to reunite us by implementing SOGR principles (Give more in use value than you take in cash value) by making and installing Life Saving NightVision Address Signs at: www.Susha-Designs.com and giving away free $100 memberships to www.RisingIncome.com to anyone who believes in practicing and teaching “The Law of Attraction”.
We are both proud people but sometimes you know you need help . . . so I’m asking, if there is anyone out there who is willing to help us – please, please help bring my husband to Australia, by joining RisingIncome.com or ordering a NightVision Sign from him. I really need him here with me and not (just a phone call away) on the opposite side of the world!’ Please help.

Susha

www.RisingIncome.com www.Susha-Designs.com

Thou Most Holy Lord,

How my heart crys at the desperate plea of Susha. Help them I ask, send care, and peace, and the unswervable assurance that under the hand of God, all will be well.

Give them your confidence, that the Lord above hears you, he takes care of you, there is no thing, too big or too small that he cannot do, and you will be well.

Will the Lord give them some voice, a sign perhaps, known only to them, that their petition has been received, and sits at the right hand of God. Pour out your blessing on them, and let them rest in the arms of the Lord.

Amen

Dear Susha,

You're right, it's a dramatic story! A couple of things it might be helpful to keep in mind to get to the kind of resolution to the story you really want (to be together and healthy).

One is not to focus any more attention on the problems. (You sure don't want yourself or anyone else focused on "poor Susha, poor Steve, poor Mrs. Shulenski, they have it so rough!")

Better to focus on the clear image of everyone in perfect health and you and Steve happily enjoying life together in Australia!

The other thing is not to get caught up in "how" Steve gets to Australia. First, you've limited the field of possibility by deciding it has to be by earning money. Secondly, you've decided how the money is supposed to come. (plus, I think your request for business would fall in the category of advertising, which Rebecca asks you not to do.)

Not only that, but you wouldn't want to attract business out of a focus on lack or need, or "frantically" applying the principles, or you'd just end up reinforcing that situation!

Better to put all you focus, faith, and feeling into the relaxed and happy image of what it will be like when it's all worked out! Let the forces of the universe figure out the details, and take action only when it's from a place of certainty and clarity rather than desperation, fear, suffering, and lack.

If you haven't already, you might also want to read Mr. Wattles' 2nd book, The Science of Being Well for some specific help on the health part.

Many blessings to you!

Alexandra