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PHOTO BY DANIEL LIP PITT

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Arthur and Sheila
Schussler came to love
each other via letters.

Picture Perfect

TH E DE TROI T JE WI S H NE W S

frr

54

hey say a picture is worth a thousand
, words. To Arthur and Sheila Schus-
sler, it's worth 51 years of marriage.
The Schusslers' love story begins
in 1944. Mr. Schussler, then 28, was
in Brazil as chief of stafffor the Army
during World War II. One day, a man
with whom he was stationed showed
him a picture of his wife. Also in the
photo was his wife's brother's girl-
friend.
Mr. Schussler was so taken with
the second woman's appearance that
he asked his friend if he could write
to her, fully aware that she already
had a steady boyfriend.
That woman, whom he described
to his friend as "very attractive," was
Sheila Woolman, a 22-year-old Cen-
tral High School graduate from De-
troit. When her friend told her about
the man in the Army who wanted to
write to her, she reluctantly agreed
to reply.
"I didn't want to answer the letter,"
says Mrs. Schussler. "But my moth-
er told me to do it because he was a
lonely soldier. So I did." They corre-
sponded for more than a year. The
first letters were friendly getting-to-
know-yous, describing who theywere
and what they were doing.
They soon discovered that they had
similar interests, like listening to clas-
sical music, bowling and going to the
theater. They also both came from
close-knit Jewish families.

"We learned about each other's
likes, dislikes and everything about
life," says Mr. Schussler. "We knew
each other very well."
Eventually, the letters grew more
detailed, and the pair were writing to
each other every day. Along the way,
Mrs. Schussler broke up with her
boyfriend, who was also overseas.

Sheila and
Arthur Schussler
turned a
year-long war
correspondence
into a successful
marriage.

MARA REINSTEIN
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

In fact, the couple felt such a kin-
ship, Mr. Schussler declined another
Army position because he desperate-
ly wanted to come back to the Unit-
ed States to meet Sheila Woolman.
They decided, via letters, to meet
at Grand Central Station in New
York City — Mr. Schussler's home-

town — in January 1945. All Mr.
Schussler had to recognize his long-
distance love was -a picture she had
mailed to him. Ironically, it was Mr.
Schussler's friend who accompanied
him to the station who spotted her in
the crowd.
"It was definitely love at firstsight,"
says Mrs. Schussler, a feeling shared
by her husband.
Mrs. Schussler, escorted by her
mother to New York, stayed with her
aunt and uncle but frequently visit-
ed Mr. Schussler in Brooklyn. Ten
days later, he proposed. "We just felt
that we were meant for each other,"
says Mr. Schussler.
They were married in June 1945
in New York. When Mr. Schussler
was discharged from the Army, the
young couple moved to Detroit in or-
der to be closer to the Woolman fam-
ily. Mr. Schussler, a sergeant-major
at the time, used his college educa-
tion to get a job as an accountant.
Today, the couple live in Farming-
ton Hills. After their four children
were grown, Mrs. Schlusser went
back to school to become a court re-
porter — a profession in which she
still works today, part time.
Mr. Schlusser volunteers at Yad
Ezra and at West Maple Middle
School in West Bloomfield, where he
is known simply as "Grandpa Artie,"
teaching foreign students how to
speak English. They bowl in a week-

ly league and participate in dinner
clubs.
Last June, the Schusslers cele-
brated their 50th wedding anniver-
sary, with a party hosted by their four
children and seven grandchildren.
The secret to their long-lasting
marriage, they say, is compromise.
One example they give relates to
Judaism. Mrs. Schussler was raised
in a Conservative household, while
Mr. Schussler, whose parents were
immigrants from Poland, grew up in
an Orthodox home. Currently, they
are members of Congregation Beth
Abraham Hillel Moses, a Conserva-
tive synagogue.
`There's no such thing as a perfect
marriage in the beginning because
people have their own ideas," Mr.
Schussler says. "Everything is a com-
promise; you have to give a little and
take a little."
In today's age of technology and
travel, they note that it is easier than
ever to establish a long-distance ro-
mance. Yet the keys to making a re-
lationship work never go out of date.
"You've got to be sincere right from
the beginning," says Mr. Schussler.
Mrs. Schussler agrees. "People tend
to act their best and have fraudulent
ideas," she says. "But eventually their
true character will come out. We
know other couples whose long-dis-
tance romances didn't work — it's be-
cause they weren't honest." ❑