September 2019

Friday night’s girl’s Class 1A regional semifinal matchup between Grundy Center/Gladbrook-Reinbeck and Iowa Falls-Alden could easily be characterized as a slobberknocker or a schoolyard brawl: yellow cards were everywhere, injury timeouts were aplenty and fans of the opposing teams even exchanged words with each other. In the end, however, it was a single penalty kick that made the difference as Rebel junior Maddie McMartin scored midway through the second half to lift her team to a 1-0 upset win and a berth in the regional finals against Nevada.
           

   MARSHALLTOWN – Though the Grundy Center boys’ golf team fell short of a team goal at the Class 1A state golf meet last weekend, there were many signs that the future remains bright for Spartans golf.
   Grundy Center shot 21 strokes better than their 336 total on Friday, but ultimately could not catch third-place Winfield-Mt. Union, sitting outside the top three by two strokes with a 651 two-day total at the end of Saturday at American Legion Memorial Golf Course in Marshalltown.

As strange as it sounds, I thought of my late grandmother while I was watching and live streaming the demolition of the former First Baptist Church in Grundy Center on Monday afternoon.
           
Geraldine Heller lived to be 89 before she passed away in 2011, but anyone who knew her, including her three daughters (one of whom is my mother) would tell you that the last few years were painful, to say the least. You see, like Ronald Reagan, Norman Rockwell, Glenn Campbell and millions of other Americans, Grandma Gerry had Alzheimer’s disease.