Oslo tragedies hit home for couple in Walford

WALFORD - Leah Grambo was surfing Facebook on Friday when she began to gather the news: Her new hometown of Oslo, Norway, had been rocked by a two-act tragedy - first a downtown explosion, then a shooting at a youth camp.

Leah and her husband of three years, Lars Grambo, said that for the rest of the day they were practically glued to their computers as they looked for updates. As of Saturday afternoon Iowa time, at least 92 people had been reported killed in the attacks.

The Grambos watched the news unfold from the comfort of Leah's parents' home in Waldorf, where they'd come for a monthlong vacation.

“It was very confusing to see that on the Internet, because I've been there, and I've walked there,” said Leah Grambo, a second-year student at the University of Oslo. She spoke while standing on her parents' lawn near the only Walford flagpole that flies Norway's red and blue flag.

Even more shocking, the Grambos said, was that something so violent could happen in the country that hands out the Nobel Peace Prize.

“Well, you're shocked and you don't really believe it. Norway's such a peaceful country,” Lars Grambo said.

The Grambos, who met four years ago at a Norwegian camp in Minnesota, said none of their friends or family members had been injured.

They said they plan to leave Iowa for Oslo on Monday with plane tickets they booked long before the tragedy. But they can't begin to guess what Oslo will look like when they return.

“I can't imagine that things will go back to where they were,” Leah Grambo said.