A Father's Strength

On March 11, when the BMW he was changing the oil on fell on top of him. He was 21.

But for his father, Frederick Klorczyk, Jr., it is important to concentrate on how he lived.

“Christian was a man who lived more in 21 years than I have in 56,” he said. “Just a fine, fine man, as are … his brothers.”

Last week, more than 1,000 people came to pay respects to the Waterford High School graduate at his wake. And one day later, his father eulogized his son at Christian’s funeral.

“As difficult as it is to comprehend, the time to move on will come, and the manner in which we do so will show our true integrity and respect for Christian,” he said in his eulogy. “Moving on doesn’t mean forgetting. It means taking the positive impact he left behind and using his legacy as motivation to strive for success in honor of his life.”

Christian was one of three sons, the others Frederick III and Parker, born to Frederick and Lynne Klorczyk. The couple met on their first day of college, when Frederick was 17.

“Lynne and I were in exact agreement in how we wanted to raise our sons to be self-responsible gentlemen in a civil, polite society,” Frederick eulogized. “Some of you may know all of them, and some of you may only know one.  However, by knowing just one of them, you probably know the others to a large degree and you likely know Lynne and me as well. We are a very close family, with a DNA thread that transcends distance (as witnessed by our cellphone and text message bills). We can pretty much read each others’ minds.”

In 2002, for Christmas, Frederick wrote a letter to his son. Christian would hold onto that letter until the day he died, and it remained as true that day as it did then, Frederick said.

The  letter:

Dear Christian,

You have become quite the young and good man in the past few years.  It seems to me that you leapfrogged some of the steps from child / adolescent to young man.  I am happy to know that you enjoy your life in this family and the world and want to assure you that you add a huge amount to it.  Our family is far from normal for several reasons, such as your grandmother living with us, me being ill, having our own company and thus having a variable income structure.  Additionally, you are growing up in an unusual age – seeing our freedom-based country attacked on our own soil, living in heightened security greater than ever before, dealing with day-by-day reports of war and people attacking what America stands for is something a little odd for us. You have managed to adapt to all of that and still become the most wonderful son and young man.

Your abstract and complex sense of humor always makes me laugh and seeing your motivation to learn new things like working hard on the car, chipping tile and hanging wallpaper is a sign that you will accomplish great things and not accept the world as is.  The fact that you have accepted your role academically, you recognize your responsibilities as a student, without whining and prodding, just get the work and studying and studying done on your own accord, is fantastic.  That gives me great confidence that you will succeed when you go off to college and on your own as I believe you truly understand the connection, creativity, self-discipline, open-mindedness, academics, happiness and success, however you define that.

Nothing gives me greater pleasure and adds value to my life than being with you working on the car, the tractor, in the yard, traveling, snowboarding, etc., and seeing you learn and being happy.  Seeing you appreciate the difficult cultures in San Francisco and L.A. was really neat for me and seeing you listen to the music I listened to when I was young and reading the stuff I read such as Steinbeck is rewarding.

You have given me much pleasure and support over the past years and I hope that I have done my job as a father, role model and friend as well as I could, as that is what you deserve.

I could not be happier and more proud of having you as a son.

You have made my life better simply by being in it.

If I were to die tomorrow, I would do so knowing that you will carry on our name with great pride.

Merry Christmas 2002... and know I love you. Forever.

Dad


The  Story of the Accident

On March 11, Lynne Klorczyk picked up Frederick Klorczyk Jr. at 3 p.m. at the train station. They got home at 3:30 p.m., and found out Christian was late picking up his brother from St. Thomas More.

After calling his friends and coming up empty, Lynne decided to search the garage. At just after 4 p.m., she opened the door and saw Christian underneath a red BMW.

At first she thought her son was just working on the BMW and began talking to him. But when he didn’t answer, she realized he was crushed and called her husband.

As Lynne called 9-1-1, Frederick rushed in and jacked the car back up, with the same jack Christian originally used. He then added two jack stands underneath the car (there were already two underneath) and pulled his son out from under the car.

Frederick began chest compressions, trying to get him to speak. When responders arrived to bring Christian to Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, he was pronounced dead on the scene.

Christian, had two jack stands underneath the car, and the jack itself did not fail. Frederick refused to release the exact way the car came crushing down.

“No one in the world knows but me… what he was doing and it was 100 percent safe,” he said.  “To recreate it would take a tsunami and earthquake such as Japan is suffering now - one in a billion chances.”

That said, Frederick did release this message:

“To those of you who are ‘car guys’ out there, please invest in the more expensive jacks with backup pins rather than those sold in local retail outlets so this tragedy is never repeated again,” he wrote.

Christian Klorczyk was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at UConn. To honor its fallen brother, the fraternity painted a rock in campus honoring Klorczyk.
The same rock was used to honor former UConn football player Jasper Howard after he was slain in 2009.