Jody Grondek

Jody Aniela Grondek, 42, of Sioux City, formerly Council Bluffs, Iowa, died on Feb. 7, 2018, at a Sioux City hospital.
Services will be 10 a.m. Monday at Larkin Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Homes, 2320 Outer Drive North, in Sioux City, with the Rev. Jerome Cosgrove officiating. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, Sioux City. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Sunday at the funeral home. Condolences may be left for the family at www.christysmith.com .
Jody Aniela Grondek was born on Dec. 29, 1975, to Mary Lynn Elliott Catalan and Richard Grondek. Jody attended Washington Elementary School in Sioux City, Kirn Middle School and Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs and graduated from West High School in Sioux City in 1994. In school, she participated in theater and Odyssey of the Mind. She went to Paris and the French countryside with her French Club.
One of Jody's first jobs was arranging flowers which she loved. After high school, Jody attended Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, and Maui Community College in Hawaii, where she worked part-time at a surfing school. She attended and graduated from Travel and Transport agent training, then worked as a travel agent.
Jody loved to travel and she loved the mountains. Besides Maui, Hawaii, she lived in the Bitterroot Valley in Montana, and Steamboat Springs, Colo. She hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park and rafted the Cache La Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colo. In 2002, she attended the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
Jody expressed her creativity through flower arranging, taking photographs and being in nature.
Jody met Jason Ridnour in Montana in 1998. The couple were married in 2005 and divorced in 2015.
Jody combined all her loves into naming her daughter, Jardin, French for garden. Jardin was her focus in life and she always wanted the very best for her daughter.
Jody is survived by her daughter, Jardin Ridnour; ex-husband, Jason Ridnour; mother, Mary Lynn Catalan; stepfather, Baldomaro Catalan; father, Richard Grondek; stepmother, Mary Jane Andrie; two brothers, Joel Grondek and wife, Jennifer, and Austin Andrie-Grondek; sister, Laura Gjere and husband, Arne; grandmother, Aniela Grondek; and aunt, uncle, nieces, nephews, cousins, other relatives and friends.
In lieu of flowers, family requests donations be made to Jardin Ridnour's college fund.
Watch www.christysmith.com for additional information.