By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 2, 2022 — I got married this morning. The groom, Chuck Offenburger, is a septuagenarian. So am I. We were friends for 47 years before we fell in love and decided to spend the rest of our lives together, however long that might be, as husband and wife.…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 2, 2022 – Late this past April, when Mary Riche let me take her back to Stanley and Aurora, her tiny hometowns in northeast Iowa. and when she answered dozens of questions from me as we made the long round-trip, I knew I wanted to marry her. And…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER and MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 5, 2022 — A former pastor of ours at Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ here sometimes talked about how in moments of extreme happiness, we are “blissed out!” And that’s how the two of us have been living since our marriage at late morning on…
By MARY RICHE DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 13, 2022 — I’ve been thinking about how I used to spend Sundays with my family and even more about the Stanley Union Church where I grew up. It was a non-denominational country church in rural northeast Iowa, though it was in the town of Stanley, pop. 81. …
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Aug. 31, 2022 — A group of 18 Latino business owners & entrepreneurs from Denison, Storm Lake, Perry, Carroll, Coon Rapids and Omaha spent Tuesday, Aug. 30, in Jefferson and Greene County on an invitation from Greene County Development Corp. to come see opportunities here for re-location, expansion or totally…