My Mom wrote this for Grandma’s memorial card and sent it to the priest/deacon to read during the funeral, but he refused. He mentioned a few things, mixing and confusing things, and got a few things wrong.
“Katherine Helen (Briski) Gulczinski was born in April 1920. She is preceded in death by her loving husband Steven, parents Katherine and Matt Briski, 5 brothers and 5 sisters, and son-in-law Terry Aho.
Katherine was one of 14 children born to a farming family in Wisconsin. After she was born, her mother wanted name her GOLDIE, after her best friend, but the priest said NO, that’s not a saint’s name. So her father Matt said, fine…….then name her after her mother, Katherine and that is why she is the one named after her mother.
She attended school until the 8th grade. Then when she was around 16 years old she followed her sisters, Julia and Elizabeth to Chicago and found employment in the big city. She worked in fish factories and at General Electric doing factory work. While on a visit back to Wisconsin, she went with her sister Angeline to visit Angeline’s future mother-in-law and saw a picture of a handsome Marine named Steven Gulczinski. Her sister told her that he already had a girlfriend and Katherine said “not for long!” She met Steven and 1 year later in May of 1946 they were married in Thorp, Wisconsin. They moved to Minnesota and a year later had a daughter named Carole Kay. They lived in a Quonset hut, which many of the young returning military families lived in. In 1952 the government tore down all the Quonset hut housing, forcing the young family, now with a baby son named Steven David, to build a new home in St. Anthony Village. It was an average house for 1952, 2 bedrooms and an unfinished attic. They had several of Katherine’s brothers, who were returning from the service, live with them and remodel the attic into a large bedroom. A few years later they had a new arrival, another baby girl they named Jane Marie.
Katherine and Steve had a huge garden. Katherine always said that she hated summer and fall, because all she did was can and freeze food for the winter months. But in reality, she loved to cook and garden and had a smaller garden for the next 20 years. She would make many old time dishes and canned hundreds of jars of fruits and vegetables. She loved to fish with Steve during the summer and ice fishing in the winter, which made her nervous when they were driving on the ice. Katherine also loved to play cards. She taught all five of her grandchildren and other assorted friends and family how to play Shanghai rummy, even helping one of her granddaughters out by passing a card to her under the table. She was teased about that for years.
She had five grandchildren, Melissa and Michelle, who were her first grandchildren, twins, and who were born on her birthday. She always said that was the best birthday present she ever got. Four years later she got a dark haired little granddaughter named Anne. A few years later, another new little girl Stacey and finally a grandson named Matthew. She loved all her grandchildren and she and Steve babysat them often, taking them fishing, and making donuts on Saturday mornings.
In 1968 Steve and Kay were in a horrible car accident on a raining March night. They were hit by a drunk driver. Kay was badly hurt and she broke both hips, her pelvis, and she lost her left eye. She never complained about it. Well, not a lot and recovered to have other misshapes, like a broken arm at the State Fair, a broken leg after a fall down the steps at home, and a couple of aneurysms. She would go to the doctors or hospital have them do whatever they needed to do, come home, recover, and get back to life. She was a tough lady. Nothing slowed her down.
Katherine and Steve did a little traveling. They went to Florida and South Dakota and took many trips to visit relatives in Wisconsin. At one point, Steve said, shall we buy your sister’s home in Greenwood, Wisconsin? She said, “hell no,” because then the kids will come and stay with us on the weekends to visit. Then all I will do is cook and clean for them. Let’s stay here and they can come for a few hours and go home.
She liked to go to the casino, but she only wanted to play the nickel “7” machines and eat at the buffet. Spending a total of 2 hours at the casino.
Steve and Kay had card parties with other adult relatives and hosted them once a year, along with lunch and prizes. She would use her family as guinea pigs and try new recipes on them, before deciding on that to feed the gathering of in-laws.
After Steve died, she made a few more trips. One to Alaska on a cruise with her sister Dolores and then for her 80th birthday to Las Vegas with her daughter Carole, sister Dolores, and niece Janice. She also went on many trips on the bus with the seniors.
Later in life she loved to play BINGO with the seniors over in Columbia Heights. She would show off her jar of dimes from being a good neighbor. She loved to watch the Twins baseball games on TV and Wheel of Fortune. After moving to the Benedictine Health Center, she also played a lot of KINGS IN THE CORNER with her new friend, David (Marvin), and had a crush on the new Pope. Saying he had a great smile.
Kay was a kind and very generous person. She will be greatly missed by her family and friends.
We would like to thank Elaine Olson, who drove Kay to Church every Saturday night, and who went out to eat with her afterwards. Also, her kind neighbors on both sides, especially Sally Austin, who brought her treats and visited her often at the Health Center.
For all of you that came today, thank you so much for coming. Katherine insisted that we have GOOD FOOD and lots of it at her funeral. So please join all of her family and have a good meal on Katherine and talk about all the good memories.”
