We have a confession: We’re a little obsessive about collecting stories. We even sometimes hoard them.

Tom Crawford, the central storyteller in our Terminal Milwaukee series is great, of course. And we love the storytellers we’ve asked to chime in on the neighborhoods and themes the series celebrates. Not sayin’ they’re not good enough, but we can’t help ourselves, we want to hear from audience members too, so we asks folks to come to the stage at events.  Still, we find ourselves going back to the story buffet for one more round and ask in our program for folks to share short written stories about the theme or neighborhood.  Now that we’ve been hoarding them for a couple of weeks, we’re feeling a little guilty and hope that if we share one here, you won’t call Dr. Phil for an intervention or sign us up for that hoarding reality TV show.

This story comes from an anonymous attendee of the July 23rd Terminal Milwaukee event at Club Garibaldi in Bay View:

“I moved to Bay View after leaving an abusive marriage.  I took the upper flat studio apartment next door to Marino’s because when I came to look at the place, Marion Marino came out the back door of the bar and folded me in a huge hug.  We had never met before, but she obviously saw my vulnerability.  She said, “take the apartment, I’ll look after you.”  And she did – for a decade, until she and Dick sold the place and retired.  She saved my life.”

Come join our support group for story addicts at upcoming Ex Fabula events. Obsessively check our blog for details and more stories, if you dare.