|
|
|
|
After the shock wore off, the pain set in.
“You know, this kind of catches me by surprise,” Andy Andress, former golf course superintendent, said. “I never knew Jeff that way.”
Andress has known the father and son for years as his son played Little League baseball with the younger Grimsinger from the time they were 10 years old until age 16. Sally Blackwell, while dating Mike, would accompany him to the son’s games.
“What gets me on this whole deal, why did he do it?” Andress, 53, shook his head. “I have no idea. I don’t know what broke there or what happened.”
Andress isn’t sure anyone may ever know or understand the motive, but said the extreme nature of the crime almost makes it a “hate crime.”
“It’s a waste of two lives,” he said.
Marvin O’Neill can’t help but remember the younger Grimsinger as a “good, young man.” He played catcher on the baseball team coached by O’Neill.
“I’m just kind of surprised,” O’Neill, manager at Melvins Menswear, said. “I still remember him as the good Jeff I remember coaching.”
When next-door neighbor Cheryl Kroos heard the news, her heart went out to the family as tears came to her eyes. She knew the elder Grimsinger raised his son the best he could and related to him as a parent.
“As a parent, I wish my children did everything I taught them to,”Kroos said. “Mike taught Jeff.”
The Kroos children and the Grimsinger children worked and played together on Westchester Drive. As a teacher, Kroos remembered how Mike taught Jeff to say, “Yes, Ma’am” and “No, Ma’am.”She described Jeffrey as a gentleman, always opening the door, home or car.
Jeffrey Grimsinger has an older brother, Lee Grimsinger.
Kroos and her husband would often go out to eat with Blackwell and the elder Grimsinger. She remembers how Blackwell kept so upbeat.
“Sally was a sweet, sweet person,” Kroos said. “The world is a sadder place because she’s not with us anymore.”
Kroos feels badly for both the Grimsinger and Blackwell families and wants to remind the community that both sides are hurting.
“Don’t direct the anger at somebody not responsible,” Kroos said. “It’s hard for everybody.”
Across the street from Kroos and Grimsinger, Lavon Glover never had any trouble with the teen-age Grimsinger boys. Glover, 63 and retired, appreciated the many times the elder Grimsinger would fix up her yard, as all the neighbors helped each other out.
Glover looked across to the Grimsinger house. “This is probably hurting him real bad,” she said.
She said she’s sure the father did his best for his sons, but “things can happen.”
“We all have children,” Glover said. “Once you raise them so far, it’s in God’s hands.”
One final knock on the Grimsinger door Friday evening, and the father opened. He politely declined comment at this time.
Tara Bozick is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at 361-580-6504 or tbozick@vicad.com.