By Ryan Ostry
Bugle Reporter
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
Some people say that having a bad day at your job, fighting with your significant other, or even getting out of bed at an inconvenient time is a nuisance.
But what do all of those things have in common?
We have the opportunity to actually live and participate in those struggles.
For Woodridge resident Kasia Szyszka, the opportunity to watch her daughter grow up and prosper is no longer a reality.
In 2014, Szyszka’s then-husband of eight years, Robert Bzdek, brutally murdered their daughter Zuzanna by stabbing her in the heart, and then later took his own life by hanging himself.
“A day before this happened I asked [Robert] if we could get a divorce,” Szyszka, said. “Everything seemed fine and we were going to approach an attorney to just settle our differences.”
Szyszka figured that the meeting for the divorce was going to go smoothly, however, the call from her other daughter Gabriela at approximately 4 p.m. on April 4, 2014 forever changed her life.
“I was in the middle of coloring one of my customer’s hair and [Gabriela] called me telling me that the door to the bedroom is blocked with blood under the door,” Szyszka said. “My first response was telling my daughter to call 911, and then I immediately walked away from my customer and started punching walls.”
With the instantaneous reaction of distress, Szyszka’s coworkers new something wasn’t right but the news kept getting worse.
“I kept saying that something is wrong when my coworkers were trying to settle me down,” Szyszka said. “After reaching my family after about 30 minutes, they were telling me that there were cops, yellow tape and the fire department surrounding the house [while] not letting anyone in.”
The frantic and dejected mother wanted to rush over to the scene, but after talks with the family they came to an agreement that she should not get behind a motor vehicle.
“[Gabriela] called me again and told me that the [medics] took Zuzanna out of the house and put her in the paramedic’s truck,” Szyszka said. “The first question that I asked my daughter was if she was alive, and she said yes.”
Szyszka and her family were in a hasten to get to Edwards Hospital where the three-year-old was transported, and Szyszka knew she had to see Zuzanna right away.
“They walked me into this white room and when I asked where my daughter was, the doctor told me to sit down,” Szyszka said. “After telling him I wasn’t going to sit down, he finally told me that [Zuzanna] was dead.”
The immediate rage and disgust seeped into every pour of Szyszka’s body, only to realize that every feeling of bitterness would not bring her fun loving, vivacious, perky daughter back to life.
“[Zuzanna] had so much impact on everybody’s life.” Szyszka said. “She spoke two languages, she knew everybody, she smiled and talked to everybody and she really loved dancing and music.”
Through many difficult and unimaginable sorrowful times, Szyszka has used the gift of giving back to help her cope.
She started tearsinheaven.org, a non-profit organization that helps others who have had similar family tragedies.
“If a parent takes the life of a child, I want to step in and first make a GoFundMe account,” Szyszka said. “They raise money for the funeral, contact psychologists and psychiatrists so people can go into counseling right away and then we help them put themselves together because it’s such a tragic situation.”
The charity is based in Woodridge, IL., and can be contacted at (630)-696-0851 or through e-mail, contact@tearsinheaven.org.