“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6:31. This is a verse that many people struggle to live by, though they may believe in it. Marilyn Sendelbach is an 81-year-old woman who thoroughly believes in this verse and has strived to show it throughout her life.

Marilyn met and married her first husband the day after she graduated high school at age 17. They stayed married for 39 years until he passed away. The two of them had five children, four girls and a boy, and she enjoyed any kind of sport. “My life has been kids and sports,” Marilyn says.

She has had many achievements throughout her life, including being a certified bowling instructor, coaching softball, refereeing/coaching basketball, and many more. Sendelbach has enjoyed her children and grandchildren and believes if you say you’re going to do something you should do it. She considers herself very honest, fair, and even harsh at times. When asked what she’s proud of Marilyn says, “I’m proud of surviving raising five kids, the way I live my life, and I was proud of my mom.” Marilyn enjoyed going to school, working as a book-keeper and at a bowling alley, and competing in sports. When she was married from her teen years to middle-aged, she felt the happiness, and then again when she remarried from her middle-aged years to older, though it was a completely different lifestyle. She has felt the saddest during sickness and the death of loved ones. She believes the best advice she has received is to respect your elders, and her best piece of advice that she could give is that it’s easier to get along with others rather than arguing. Marilyn is full of life, loves to care for others, being involved in anything she can, and most of all her children and grandchildren.