While most people are starting to slow down when they turn 40, 72-year-old Becker resident Gloria Grubbs’ life started gearing up.

“The best year of my life was the year I turned 40,” she said.

Grubbs was working at a restaurant in Plymouth when a customer she was waiting on asked if she wanted to meet professional wrestler Buck ‘Rock n’ Roll’ Zumhofe. She ended up meeting not only Zumhofe, but another professional wrestler, Billy Robinson, ‘the man with 1,001 moves,’ who asked for her phone number. They began dating.

Robinson moved in with Grubbs, and she attended his wrestling matches all over Minnesota, after which they’d head to the local bars. During this time, she was introduced to many other well-known wrestlers of the day, including Mike ‘Mad Dog’ Bell, Larry ‘The Ax’ Hennig, ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Hennig, and ‘The Claw’ Baron Von Raschke.

One day at the Monti Gym, where she’d gone to learn to swim, she saw a notice about a body building competition in Hinckley that was being held in two weeks.

Not one to turn down a challenge, Grubbs decided she wanted to try it and spent the next two weeks training; she had grown up on a farm and knew hard work. She took second place her first time out.

After that she was hooked and began competing in body building competitions across the Midwest. The City of St. Michael, where she was living, sponsored her to attend competitions in Arizona and Utah.

Grubbs took a trophy at every competition she entered, including first place at Minnesota State three years in a row. Not wanting to go pro, she ended her five-year body building career with over 60 trophies.

During this time, Robinson taught her how to downhill ski and she went tandem skydiving for the first time (she jumped a second time two years ago with her granddaughter Morgan).

Looking for more new challenges, Grubbs modeled as a mannequin in the Bloomington Mall after seeing an advertisement for it and deciding she wanted to try it. She had a blast. She also modeled as a pregnant woman for a maternity store.

Eventually Grubbs and Robinson went their separate ways, and in 1993 she met her current husband, Jim Grubbs. Jim was an over-the-road trucker and taught her how to drive so they could run as a team. During the next five years they drove through every state except for Alaska and Hawaii. They then sold the truck and drove dump truck together for a couple of years.

Grubbs returned to waitressing at Perkins in Monticello, eventually ending up at the Clearwater America Legion in 2016, where she works to this day.

Never one to turn down new adventures, Grubbs took her oldest granddaughter Miranda on vacation to Mazatlán, Mexico, when she was in her 60’s. They went parasailing, ziplining, and snorkeling, and attended a bull fight. Grubbs has only one fear – water – so it took a lot of courage for her to snorkel. She even wore a lifejacket.

In 2012 she went on a cruise to the Bahamas with eight of her friends, where they swam with the dolphins and went deep sea fishing.

“I was terrified,” she admitted, “but it was fun.”

In 2019 Grubbs took her two oldest granddaughters, Morgan and Miranda, on a spur of the moment trip to Las Vegas, where they attended a Chippendales show, rode the High Roller Ferris wheel, and bungee jumped off the Stratosphere Tower.

“I was scared because it was so windy, but I didn’t want them to know,” said Grubbs. “I told them afterward.”

They also rented a limo for four hours and pretended they were movie stars, drinking champagne and listening to music.

Life hasn’t all been a grand adventure for Grubbs, however. Her father died from severe burn complications when she was 10, and her sister Bonnie was killed in a murder/suicide by her estranged husband in 2002.

Then on April 6, 2020, Grubbs woke up feeling great, but within two hours her left leg had begun swelling. She was rushed to the emergency room in Princeton and from there an ambulance took her to Fairview South in Edina.

Her intestines had twisted and cut off circulation to her leg, causing four blood clots. She was close to death and doctors weren’t sure they could save her leg. It took numerous surgeries during the next three weeks to remove dead tissue, but they succeeded.

“It’s the worst pain I’ve ever had,” said Grubbs. “I’ll never forget it. But the hardest part was that no one could visit me in the hospital due to COVID.”

It was a month before she was able to leave the hospital, and she required home care for another three months.

Grubbs hasn’t let her near death experience slow her down. She’s planning more adventures, including taking all five of her grandchildren on a road trip and skydiving with her youngest granddaughter Karlee. She turned 72 in July, and to celebrate she’s thinking about getting her first tattoo.