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God in control, she knows she’s going the right way

Katie Zakrzewski gained unusual perspective from hospice volunteer work

Published: May 30, 2016   

By Malea Hargett
Editor

Malea Hargett
Katie Zakrzewski, a member of St. Mary Church in North Little Rock, is known by her teachers and classmates as funny, spiritual and a gifted public speaker.

Katie Zakrzewski doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life. Right now she is thinking about being an archaeologist. She has also pondered being a nurse, a writer or Sister of Mercy. Because of her faith, she isn’t worried.

“Things seem to come together on their own. I know who controls my future,” she said. “I know things will turn out all right.”

Zakrzewski credits her semester-long service project during her junior year at Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock for helping to improve her outlook on life and what is really important. Zakrzewski and one other student were the only ones to choose to go to the St. Vincent Infirmary hospital-based hospice. When her required assignment ended in the spring 2015, Zakrzewski decided to keep visiting during the summer of 2015.

“It wasn’t a chore,” she said. “because I liked doing it. It made me feel good, but I knew I was helping someone else, especially when they really needed it. I tried to visit people who didn’t have friends or family.”

If a patient didn’t have visitors, Zakrzewski would just sit with the patient, hold his or her hand and pray the rosary.

“Human interaction is so nice. Whoever I am talking to is definitely more important than whoever is texting me right now …  I would sit in there from anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours just praying. … I knew it meant the world to that person.”

Death struck the family six years ago when her youngest brother, Sam, died of cancer.

“My parents and grandparents really turned me around (after the death). They said the things that I really needed to hear,” she said. “They reaffirmed my faith. That is when I really started getting involved in church.”

Zakrzewski said she wants to appreciate life and not put her goals on hold.

“When people are dying they really tell you things they want to tell everybody else. … They will say, ‘I wish I didn’t work as hard.’ ‘I wish I had taken that vacation; now I don’t have a chance.’ It really impacted the decisions I started making … If I want to do something, I need to do it now because I don’t know when I am going to be in that position. … This is the outlook I need to have on life and I am so glad that I got it when I was 16, 17 years old.”

Zakrzewski grew up one block from St. Mary Church in North Little Rock. Because her mother Kathy used to work there and her father Danny was the parish council president, Zakrzewski and her brother Nick, who will be a junior at Catholic High School, have participated  in practically every role for the laity: usher, altar server, extraordinary minister of the Eucharist, choir member and lector.

“I think I’ve done it all,” she said. “If you can name it, I’ve done it.”

Plus she was active in youth ministry at her parish and school while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average, working part-time at a downtown Little Rock pizza place and writing a Latin medical textbook with other classmates for their senior Latin class project.

Her family and St. Mary Church means so much to her that she chose to attend the University of Arkansas at Little Rock as a Donaghey Scholar this fall so she can be near. She plans to remain at the parish where Zakrzewskis have attended for more than 100 years.

“My church is my family history … That is a tradition I really want to keep up. My grandparents were instrumental in forming my faith. I probably wouldn’t be who I am today without them.”

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