Czarnecki, Irene S.
(1916 - Dec. 24, 2006)
Novelist

Irene S. Czarnecki, who wrote two novels of Polish immigrant life in the United States, led a life as interesting as her characters. She was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to John and Helen Sztuka, who came from Poland when they were children, and was herself the only child of the couple. John Sztuka, who was born November 5, 1889, in Mielec, Poland, was brought to Lawrence in 1893, and grew up among Polish families who didn't like the way they were treated by the bishop of the Boston Archdiocese. When the Poles of Lawrence formed two separate churches, the Sztuka family joined the group that built its own church in 1900 and asked Bishop Francis Hodur, who had started the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1897, to dedicate the Lawrence church.

In 1930, John, then a finisher in a woolen mill, and Helen Sztuka, were two of the 939 persons from Poland in the city of 85,270. As their only child grew up, Irene learned to play a piano and a violin. When her church needed an organist, a vocalist, or an operetta, she answered the call. In her spare time, she wrote short stories and poems. Eventually she married a Czarnecki and moved to Atkinson, New Hampshire, on the Massachusetts border. The so called Hodur church was for sale in 2006, because most of its members died or moved away.

After traveling to Poland to visit relatives, Irene Czarnecki decided to write the story of a Polish family over a period of time. The novel, which was called The Sleeping Night, was set in Zakopane, the winter capital of Poland. In her second novel, The Unfinished Symphony, she wrote about the lives of the Poczatek family for many generations.

She died in her home on Meditation Lane, Atkinson, New Hampshire, on December 24, 2004, at the age of 90. For more information about The Unfinished Symphony, log on to www.illumina.com.

From: Edward Pinkowski (2009)