Sharon Emrick, a former and now current Marysville resident, found her way back home in 2014 — a decision she said was one of the best she ever made.
Emrick was born here in 1946, but moved away in 1968, after marrying her husband, Tim Emrick. Just four years ago they moved back to her hometown.
“I moved away for 46 years, but I came back all the time,” she said.
Emrick was born to Polly (Kennedy) and Warren Widner, both teachers. Her father was both a coach and later a high school principal at Marysville, and a hall of fame member. Her mother was born and raised in Marysville.
Emrick lived in Marysville all her life, but left for college at Ohio University in 1964 where she met Tim, of Lancaster.
“My husband is from Lancaster, but he loves Marysville,” she said.
However, her experience with Marysville, having grown up here, is one quite different from her husband’s and one quite different from those growing up here now, she believes.
“I’d say it was happy, content, easy going and a lot different from today,” she said. “The memories I have are happy ones.”
Her memories of her childhood show a different town, one of only 5,000 people as she remembers it, a place where people were so close and trusting they never locked their doors. Emrick is aware that times have changed, but the feelings she has are still the same. After leaving the area for her husband’s career, the two bounced around to cities much bigger than this, so coming back to Marysville still felt like coming back to her — now much larger — small town.
“My husband was in the Air Force so we moved a lot,” Emrick said. “We went to bigger places than Marysville.”
While coming back she did notice differences, but the town was still full of her old classmates, who remain close to this day.
“A group of us still gets together weekly,” she said.
After years away, the last of which was spent in Colorado Springs where her husband was a contractor — Emrick’s family is now back to a town where they no longer live, but she still gets to see them frequently.
“My daughter lives in Illinois, she loves coming back,” Emrick said. “My aunt and cousins are thrilled to have someone back in Marysville.”
“There’s a simplicity and convenience to a small town compared to a big city,” she said. “The things we needed immediately when we moved in, we could get right here in Marysville, but for other things you can drive 30 minutes and get what you want. We moved from Colorado Springs, so to me driving to Dublin isn’t anything now.”
While there are some things Emrick needs to leave town for, many of her activities she loves to do right here.
“I love the churches and the courthouses,” she said. “You’re more easily accepted at smaller churches, bigger churches are easy to get lost in.”
Emrick also cites other things around town that make it worth living here.
“I like reading the paper, better than the big city,” she said. “I think the schools are good. I can’t see that anybody would have a problem. They’re doing their best to offer everything a family would need.”
Marysville, to people outside of the area, might feel a bit small or a bit of the way, but Emrick has shown the upsides of the area to all who come to visit her.
“We’ve had friends come visit (from Colorado Springs) and they couldn’t understand why we came back until they came here,” she said. “Coming home is a feeling of contentment and peacefulness, I can’t really think of a downside.
Settling down again in Marysville has allowed Emrick the opportunity to become closer to her community, which she wants nothing but the best for. When thinking of changes that she’d like to see in the future, Emrick said it’s hard to find a lot of faults.
“Looking at it logically, there are things that would be nice to have, but Marysville is so close to other places,” she said. “We could always use a couple other restaurants; that would be nice. My preference would be nicer ones, not fast food.”
However, she recognizes that these things will come in their own time, for now, Emrick is content with the city and what they’re doing. For now, she’s just happy that after 46 years she was able to return.
“One of the best decisions we made was to come back,” she said. “I just want to say ‘yes, you can go home.’”