Are you not a human too? I am, I can see why they want to highlight that, obviously "grandmother finishes ironman" is more "newsworthy" than "mother finishes ironman", and obviously not because her daughter had children of her own, but because it's implied she's old and people see the old as frail, and she proved she is anything but frail.

"Grandmother" is more important than all of those other things, because of the whole "old+frail" thing usually makes people not participate in ironman challenges, at least where I live, and none of those other things implies anything of the sort.

Not everything is a scientific journal, and people with hearts like "feel good stories", even the stories with a bit of flowery language to really drive home some of the points. It's OK.

It's a kind of context about the person's life, since this is a local community publication, not a news wire service. One that is palatable to a wider audience than religion or political affiliation for a feel-good story like this. Though if she had no loving family and were engaged in the church, that is what I would have next expected to hear about since she is retired. If not retired, I would have expected a blurb about her job instead.

There's also a good chance, since she was interviewed, that that's how she described herself first.

"Tell me about yourself."

"Well, I'm a grandmother..."

It means she had normal life and achieved that so can you

You want to know her party affiliation? My god we are so cooked.

It's a human interest story.

Childbirth and pregnancy can be significant hurdles for some women in staying healthy- it's good to inspire people

This is such a silly thing to be upset about...

Why are you so concerned by this? People commonly describe children as their greatest accomplishment, and it’s the only one of the ones you listed which doesn’t change back over time. The writer was trying to humanize the subject and that’s a very common way to describe someone in a relatable, non-intimidating manner.