"I was in survival mode for a long time, and now I’m enjoying transitioning into thriving mode," professional dancer Marisa Merliss saysSusan Young is a reporter for PEOPLE. She started working for PEOPLE in 2008, covering entertainment, human interest, crime, health and breaking news stories.
Minarik was watching as the nurses monitoring their baby looked at the doctors and shook their heads. And he looked to his wife, who was beaming, unaware. “There was a croquet, ball-sized lump in her leg and it was huge. And she's like, what's this? And I thought, oh my God,” Minarik says. “So two weeks to the day that we lost our daughter, we were back in the hospital overnight.”It was June 2020 at the height of COVID-19 pandemic. They rushed to the nearest hospital where tests were run and Minarik says the doctor told them the strange mass looked “insidious.
Time was of the essence in getting her cancer treatment. Doctors gave her less than two weeks to get the eggs harvested before starting four rounds of aggressive chemo. As she was going through cancer treatment, what kept her going was the thought of Schulte’s offer and the dream of picking her life back up post treatment.