After 32 years, Mary Gravalin is finally giving in to an unending tug at her heart to be nearer to her family.

The Moorhead, Minn., native is retiring from her eighth-grade health instructor position at the Williston Middle School, and wishes she could take her job and move it to Minnesota. She fell in love with the friendly Williston community when she moved here 32 years ago to begin her teaching career.

But she wants to see her granddaughter Olivia grow up, and the drive from Williston to Moorhead, is long, she said. If it's available, Gravalin would take a similar position back home.

"It'd have to be an ideal job like this," she said.

Gravalin started in Williston as a substitute and an elementary physical education teacher. She also has coached basketball, volleyball and track at the middle-school level. She decided to go into teaching because she likes working with students. She chose physical education and health because of their importance in life.

"You only have one body and need to be responsible," she said.

The health field is ever-changing, as Gravalin said it's now known the brain develops after one's teen years, into their 20s. In the 1980s, physical education began to gain in importance, and now more people realize how important exercise is to one's health, she said.

Gravalin chose to teach middle-school students because she enjoys being around them.

"I like the middle school kids; they're fun to be around. It's the age I've always enjoyed," Gravalin said.

A 1972 graduate of Moorhead High School, Gravalin earned her bachelor's degree in physical education, health and coaching in 1976 from the former Moorhead State University, now known at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. She also has taken graduate courses.

Gravalin and her husband Jim knew in their hearts they belonged back in Minnesota, so in 2000 they set it in motion by purchasing a house on Little Pine Lake near Willmar. Last year, Jim retired after 30 years of teaching elementary physical education.

The couple plans to move immediately after she retires. They'll live close to daughter Andrea, mother of their granddaughter Olivia. Their other daughter, Erin, lives in the Phoenix area. Both daughters are teachers.

When asked what she'll miss the most, Gravalin said it'll be the WMS staff.

"It's a family, it's always been that way," she said.