Help Susie Reunite with Her Children

Hi friends! My name is Susie and I am humbly asking for your help for myself and my children to become a family again. My children and I are at risk of being permanently separated due to my husband’s long term and current abuse.

In October 2023, I was brutally attacked by my husband when I was very ill and dying a slow death due to chronic Lyme Disease and long haul Covid. At the time, I had lost my ability to walk. I could do nothing but lie in bed. I could barely open my eyes. I was drenched in sweat and I was a person who rarely ever sweat, even during intense workouts. I hard a very difficult time speaking or breathing. I was down to 80 pounds. I couldn’t keep any solid food down as it would go right through me. I was wearing adult diapers 24/7. As a faithful Catholic, I prepared for my death with Last Rites only a week before the trauma.

A few of my friends came to my aid the day of my Last Rites. As a long time active member of the autism community and having extensively studied and associated with those in the alternative medicine/natural healing community at large, a few of my friends of the same capacity came to my aid to try to save my life on the day I prepared to die. They succeeded in bringing me back to life the day the priest arrived in my bedroom, as my husband ignored me and went to work at his job as the priest prepared my soul to be released from my body.

One week later, I was still very ill and I feared that I was again at death’s door. I had already had three abnormal EKGs; one at Mayo Clinic and one at Northwestern Hospital Chicago. As my husband and I were estranged living in the same home, he was sleeping in the basement as I was in my bedroom alone. I felt my heart racing as I lay in bed. I felt myself again struggling to breathe. I called his phone asking him to please care for me and take my blood pressure at the very least.

My husband came upstairs. He plugged his phone into the wall by the bed. He began to put the blood pressure cuff on my arm. I was still unhappy with him for leaving me alone with my best friend as I had my Last Rites done only a week before. I said something to him I would very soon regret. He tore the blood pressure cuff off my arm.

What happened next was the first of two brutal attacks in a row. He pulled the charging cord to his phone out of the wall. In desperation, knowing that I needed his help to survive, I grabbed the cord, hoping to stop him from leaving. As he had his hands on the other end of the cord, he used his force to try to release mine from the other end. My body flew into our bedroom wall, my head hitting the window, I hung on for dear life. He swung again, this time my body landing back onto the bed. He climbed on top of me. His 220 pound body laid on top of my 80 pounds.

He then drove his forearm into my neck. His face was two inches from mine. It was then that I could smell the whiskey on his breath. I whispered to him with the little strength I had, “Kill me now, you’ve already taken everything from me.” And again, “kill me now, you’ve already taken everything from me.” Once more as I stared into his eyes, “kill me now, you’ve already taken everything from me.” He then got off of me, called me a bitch and walked downstairs to the basement.

After this beating and already so ill, I decided to go to confession the next day. I was again terrified of death. Although I was in severe pain and distress, I thought it best to again prepare for my death, this time through confession. I began researching what nearby churches offered confession on a Sunday.

I woke up the next morning and called an Uber to get to church. Although my battered body was in severe pain, I knew I needed to once again make my preparations to meet my maker just in case. I went to church. I said my confession. I came home. As I was using a walker, one of my children helped me up the stairs to my bedroom. I locked the door. I sat down on my bed, I began texting my lawyer to fill him in on the attack that had taken place the night before.

It was then that I heard the door unlock. What happened next were the most horrific and frightening few minutes I have ever experienced in my life. My husband rushed over to me and tore the phone out of my hands. I panicked. The only thought that came to my mind was, I need that phone to contact my lawyer so I can save my children.

I slid to the floor. I grabbed onto my husband’s pant leg. I could not risk being unable to contact my lawyer for the sake of my kids. I could not risk him doing something with my phone so that I could not save my kids from him.

He began walking through our hallway, dragging my weak body along. He rushed down about 15 stairs as I held on, my head hitting each stair as he proceeded. My son with autism heard the commotion, he saw the action, I thought quickly and yelled to my son to begin recording the action.

My husband continued to drag my weak and hurt body into the living room where my then fifteen year old was playing video games on the computer. I held onto the pant leg. He dragged me into the kitchen where my then twelve year old daughter was making lunch. It was then that he stepped onto my neck with his shoe on as I stared into my daughter’s horrified face. Never will I forget the look on my beautiful daughter’s face.

Still screaming at me to let go, he dragged me through the hallway and out the front door and over a concrete step leading to the driveway, my head hitting that as we continued the struggle. He dragged me onto the driveway. He stepped and pushed his foot hard onto the side of my face, pressing the other side onto the pavement. Still not letting go of his pants and with my son continuing to film, he used the screwdriver to stab my left hand which is then when I let go. My son on the spectrum gasped and yelled to his father, “Did you just do that?” I screamed, “Call 911!”

My body ended up with multiple bruises, scrapes, cuts and of course, stab wounds to my hand. I now have a traumatic brain injury with epileptic seizures due to the severe head trauma I endured. I also suffer from severe PTSD.

My husband was not content to abuse me for the 33 years I have been in a relationship with him sexually, emotionally and physically. He continues to abuse me financially and emotionally. This stay at home mom of twenty one years who sacrificed her life for her children, one with autism who greatly needed me, is now in financial dire straits. I finally left after he left me almost dead. I have been unable to find work due to being out of the work force for such a long period. I have had to use credit cards to live and have maxed them all. My perfect credit score is now a 4.5. I have moved over twenty times just so I have been able to keep a roof over my head, becoming homeless in hotels and one homeless shelter. I myself am currently eight months sober from alcohol, ever since the attack and attend AA meetings as often as possible.

He is currently petitioning the court for full custody of my children and for me to have no contact with them, not even through the means of a phone call. He has already prevented me from seeing them or speaking to them since February of this year. Before this, he had been coaching them over the phone, making them talk to me on speaker and I could hear him telling them what to say in the background. One of my children told me he even wrote a text to me pretending to be my child. My son, however, did not need to tell me. I already knew how my son texts and asked my son who admitted this to be true.

I am asking for your help to retain an attorney so that I can fight to keep my children who are my world. My husband is also currently denying payment of the maintenance money that has already been agreed upon in court, $12,000 as an up front payment in February 2024 and $6,000 in the following months. My husband claims a $470,000 income on his taxes and has not given me any money so far. I am only asking for $2,500 as a retainer so I can hire an attorney as the court will petition him to pay the rest of my legal fees. Any little amount you can give towards this goal would be greatly appreciated. Also, please share and most importantly I would appreciate everyone’s prayers. Thank you so very much for your prayerful consideration!