COOPER, Iowa, July 27, 2021 — Carla Offenburger, an MVP kind of Iowa citizen from rural Cooper in Greene County, died at home on Saturday, July 24, 2021, at the age of 62 after a 12-year-long “dance with cancer,” as she often described it. She gave the incurable adenoid cystic carcinoma a real challenge, one that…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2021 — I can’t recall seeing a better stand of corn just before Independence Day than I did Friday evening, July 2, in the fields of our neighbors and pals, Doug and Karen Lawton, just outside our tiny western Iowa town. Tall, straight, lush and the prettiest green you’ve…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 29, 2021 – I’m history. And so are a lot of you out there – my fellow Baby Boomers, hep cats, hippies, yippies, yuppies and others. We are people who were born or came of age in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, three decades that changed the world, most…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, April 21, 2021 – Happy 30th wedding anniversary, dear Carla! We really celebrated it this year, didn’t we? Fresh flowers, lots of cards, peach ice cream and a surprise serenade last evening in our farmhouse living room from 10 members of the Chancel Choir at our Plymouth Congregational United Church…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 16, 2021 — My wife Carla Offenburger, after six months of hospice care here at home for her cancer, glanced at her reflection in a mirror when she finished showering on a recent day and said to me, “In our wedding vows, when we said ‘in sickness and in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER SHENANDOAH, Iowa, Dec. 1, 2020 – Back in the 1960s here in my ol’ hometown, there surely must have been some wondering, “Whatever is going to become of the youngest Welty girl!” You want it short and sweet? In the late ’60s, Harriet Welty meandered half the world by herself, twice jumping…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 6, 2021 – For at least 18 years, during which I’ve kept a log of the books I’ve read, my goal has always been at least 52 books in a year. In the earlier years, I didn’t come close. But for the last 10 years, I’ve almost always read…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 12, 2020 — Three things happened this past week that put me in a reflective mood: 1) Lindsay Offenburger, oldest granddaughter, turned 13 and I was telling her what I was doing at that age; 2) after too many years of forgetting to re-subscribe, my new subscription started up for…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Nov. 3, 2020 – I slid into bed the other night next to my wife Carla Offenburger, kissed her goodnight and, like I always do, told her I love her. She grabbed my hand, like she always does, then said something real different: “I’m afraid I’m slipping away from you.”…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Sept. 1, 2020 —We won’t forget the date. August 20, 2020. We won’t forget the message. On Thursday, August 20, I was to have a routine visit with my oncologist Dr. Matthew Hill, of John Stoddard Cancer Center at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines. Plus another regularly-scheduled infusion…
