Marilyn Stork : World Traveler

Marilyn Stork
World Traveler
Delaware, Ohio


I met Marilyn for an interview in 2010. I stopped by her home in Delaware prepared to talk about hoarding. As soon as I arrived at her front door she came outside and told me that we were going to Wendy’s. I thought nothing of this until she asked, at the restaurant, for me to begin the interview. Judging that hoarding was something she was sensitive about, I quickly switched the topic to travel. Marilyn has been my step-grandmother for over 10 years and I learned more about her in this interview than I had ever previously known.
Marilyn is a retired teacher who earned a degree from Miami University in Oxford Ohio. She taught in nursery school. She maintains contact with many of her former students. Marilyn also hosted foreign exchange students from time to time. She is widowed with five children. She has lived in Delaware Ohio for over twenty years.


In my head I know I’m an American citizen, but in my heart I know I’m Ecuadorian. By the way it’s Ecuador and Ecuador is E-C… Paulina was the girl who came through the foreign exchange thing. I went down (to Ecuador) for the first time when her father was ill in 1980. The first night I was there we watched television in the kitchen. A Novella is a small story so it’s an hour long. In the story the maid found out she was actually the child the family had given away. There were tears and the mother’s crying and I’m crying (laughs), it was a bonding experience. This family embraced me as the extra grandmother or the extra aunt. So yeah, I go down there because it’s such a welcome situation. It is frightening the first time you walk into a culture where everybody doesn’t look like you, doesn’t talk like you. You see things you’ll never see because the stuff down there (Ecuador is located on the Equator in South America. The national language is Spanish.)…
This family is so spectacular and I’m included in everything they do. I was invited to Venezuela for a 15th birthday party. I’ve been invited to Mexico. I went to Guatemala twice, went to Trinidad once, I went to Panama once. But the youngest brother invited me to see an orphanage. I found out how poor people really are. When I went down a couple months later I brought a couple boxes of stuff. One of the reasons that I keep going down there is the kids need these toys. Jasmine (Marilyn’s niece) got a $3,000 scholarship, there was a contest. I don’t remember if it was Rotary or Elks, you had to write about something that changed your life. She wrote about the day she went to an orphanage at the age of 10! And she was chosen as the winner.
If I had money I would do a lot more traveling. If I had the health I would do a lot more traveling. I love it. I think that the problem is that growing older, if you haven’t got this kind of stuff I don’t know what you do with yourself. And I love teaching. I was the kind of teacher kids remember. I don’t know what people do who hated their job. What do they do in old age? I’ll tell you what they do; they join the senior citizens where they play bingo.
I’m gonna keep on going and there’s no reason for me not to. It’s not like I’m going down and seeing the same thing sixteen times. My mom and dad were a big influence on me. Taught me that you can do things without the smoking and drinking and racing cars. Life is pretty neat. At 75 I intend to do it another 20 years and then I’m gonna give it up.
There are things that I should’ve done that I didn’t. Weeb )Wilbur “Weeb” Ewbank, hall of fame coach), a friend, coached football years ago. I went to Miami (University) with Weeb. He became famous in both leagues. These names might not mean anything to you but your dad would know them, Joe Namath, Johnny Unitas (hall of fame quarterbacks). His wife asked if I would like to come to the funeral and I said no. Bill (Marilyn’s son) said there were national sportscasters there. I wish I had tone and met these people because it would have been a wonderful thing to say I met Johnny Unitas. I wish I had taken the job in Hawaii sometimes but then I wouldn’t have my kids and grandkids.
My advice, quit buying expensive stuff and backpack. Say yes to travel. Say yes to going away for six months. If you don’t do it, you’ll get married, you’ll have a career, you’ll have bills to pay but you will not have memories. I’ve got so many memories. I probably got 50,000 pictures sitting at home. If you don’t do it, you’ll regret it, later when you’re fifty or you’re sixty.

Marilyn plans on going down (someplace in South America) five times this year. I can only speculate that one trip will be to Ecuador but Paulina has family, which Marilyn visits, in several countries. She is currently waiting for airline ticket prices to drop below $700 to book her next trip. She plans on attending a wedding and a 75th birthday in July alone.