John Walczyk 

In all of the time that John has spent working with the dead, he has been able to develop a vision of his own passing: “I’ll be about ninety years old, dressed in my beat-up sweat shirt and sweat pants, wearing the slippers my wife hates, and sitting in a recliner watching a movie.”  John is a native of Green Bay and followed other members of his family into the business (“Well, I needed a legitimate job.”).  He is a licensed funeral director and works at Proko-Wall Funeral Home in Green Bay where he has the opportunity to spend a great deal of time dealing with those who are experiencing grief and loss.  Unfortunately, his role as a funeral director often keeps him busy in the evenings with visitations and other matters and he is not able to make the meetings of the Council.  

 

It was Fr. Al’s constant pestering several years ago that got him through First Degree and into the Council in the first place, and that prodding continued through the Second and Third Degree even though “I was perfectly happy as a First Degree Knight.”  Though he has not had the opportunity to take part in many of the activities of the Council, he vividly remembers showing up for vegetable cutting for one of the booyah sales, knives in hand, only to see that everyone else had already finished the job.  John says he is determined to make it to a Council meeting soon.

 

As with so many other occupations, there is hardly anything like an average day in his line of work.  He may spend time making arrangements, greeting families, parking cars, running around with flowers, taking things to families, arranging details with churches or making home calls.  It is an occupation which keeps him chasing around a lot.  Then there’s the ‘on-call’ time;  John is on-call one night a week and every other weekend.  He has noted that the calls seem to come in streaks and often at about 2:00 in the morning.  There is some time to relax; John considers himself to be a home body and enjoys puttering around with projects at home.  He has a new computer system and has been learning how to design home pages, and has also developed some talent as a handyman, and proudly describes his latest accomplishments with a shower and with a window.  Above all, his favorite activity is to come home and don his sweat shirt and sweat pants and just lounge around and enjoy time with his wife and children.

 

John and his wife, Dawn, have been married about six years now and she is employed full time as a wife and mother.  They have two children--Carese (age 6) and Malorri (age 2) and two dogs, who, with muddy paws, seem to be more trouble to deal with than the children.

 

February 1998