Birth Date: Monday, July 10, 1933

Birth Place: Westfield, Massachusetts

Bio: When Helen Anna Kmiecik was born on July 10, 1933, in Westfield, Massachusetts, her father, Stanislaw, was 29, and her mother, Anna, was 18. She married Donald Joseph Lloyd on May 14, 1953, in Ghent, New York. They had four children in 12 years. Helen Kmiecik, my maternal grandmother, was born on July 10th, 1933 to Kazmir and Anna Kmiecik. She was born at Noble Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts. When Helen was young the family lived on a farm in Stanley Park in Massachusetts. Their house was struck by lightning and burned down. Helen and her family then moved to a farm in Blanford, Massachusetts, which her father, Kazmir, purchased and she grew up there. She attended Westfield High School, which at the time was a regional high school. Everyday Helen was expected to do work on the farm to help her family. She would feed the animals, clean up after them, care for her siblings, help oversee the summer help, and many other duties. She also grew up with a philosophy adopted from her father, that there was no use for doctors. When Helen was a young girl she was speared by a bull. Her parents bandaged her up, and prayed she'd be okay. Thankfully she was. This made Helen a very tough, headstrong woman. She learned to make the best of situations, and growing up in the Great Depression Era, learned never to let something go to waste. She carried this throughout her life. Helen married Donald Lloyd and had four children with him. Even though Donald's job as an aeronautical engineer provided them with a very good life, Helen still retained her frugal nature. She enforced the rule that you don't waste food so you could not leave the dinner table until your plate was clean, and she kept everything from outgrown clothes to used plastic bags. She would clean them and store them for later use. This came from her experiences as a child, growing up with little, and being taught to "Waste not, want not". While Helen grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, she loved to travel. During the time she lived in Texas with her husband and kids, they visited such places as The Grand Canyon, Brice Canyon, Zion, Yellowstone, Carlsbad Caverns, and the Painted Desert. The family, including the dog, would drive to each of these locations. Once she retired from her job as a Unit Secretary at Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Massachusetts, Helen continued to travel. She visited Hawaii on several occasions, went fishing in Canada (Helen loved to fish!), and accompanied a friend on two separate Big Game Hunting trips to South Africa. A stuffed "Wart Hog" head and behind hang at the Connecticut Air National Guard Base in East Granby, Connecticut courtesy of Helen's friend. The wart hog was shot and "stuffed" in South Africa. Helen and her friend donated it to the base in honor of the planes the base was flying, the A-10, also known as "the Wart Hog". Helen never lost her love for farming or cooking. She made some of the best home-made mashed potatoes! She grew a vegetable garden every year, growing enough tomatoes and cucumbers to share with her family, neighbors and coworkers. She continued to care for her house and acre of land by herself, using a riding lawn mower, until August of 2008 when she was diagnosed with Lung Cancer which had spread to her brain. Helen underwent 2 brain surgeries, 10 rounds of whole-head radiation, and 4 rounds of chemotherapy before losing her battle with cancer. From August 2008 Helen lived with her daughter, Catherine Walton, who was her primary caregiver, and Catherine's family. In Helen's honor Catherine and her family plant a garden each year. The first crop of 2010 peas have already been planted. And "Nana's Mashed Potatoes" are still the gold standard by which all other mashed potatoes are judged. She died on March 3, 2009, in Windsor, Connecticut, at the age of 75, and was buried in her hometown.

Death Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Death Place: Windsor, Connecticut

Father: Stanislaw "Charles" Szymon Kmiecik

Mother: Anna Helen Kmiecek (Puscharka)

Husband: Donald Joseph Lloyd

Daughter: Catherine Ann Walton (Lloyd) (1962)

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