Grotto of Redemption, West Bend, Iowa
The West Bend Grotto is mentioned prominently in David Lynch's 1999 award-winning
film, A Straight Story, starring Richard Farnsworth and Sissy Spacek.
Farnsworth plays Alvin Straight, a 73-year-old Iowan from Laurens,
who drives a John Deere lawn mower to visit his ailing brother in Mt. Zion,
Wisconsin, a distance of around 250 miles. Along the way, Mr. Straight
(like all Iowans) touches the lives and solves the problems of the
people he meets. The silo on farm on which I grew up is barely visible
on the horizon to the right.
