Toni Reece: Hi there. I’m Toni Reece, and welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living magazine. Today I have Jerry Wojciechowski with me. Welcome, Jerry, to the Get Inspired! Project.
Jerry Wojciechowski: Thank you, Toni. Thank you for inviting me to come in.
Toni: Absolutely. So, Jerry, take a moment and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Jerry: Sure. Born and raised in Berks County. Spent most of my life in West Reading. Grew up in West Reading, and apart from a couple of years living in Florida with my family, I’ve lived in Wyomissing Hills ever since then. Married to my high school sweetheart. We have three children, two grandchildren, and I love Berks County. When we were living in Florida, although we love the weather down there, it wasn’t home. We came home to return to Berks County, and we haven't regretted that one minute.
Toni: Lovely. Well, let’s go into the Project.
Jerry: Sure.
Toni: So, what does inspiration mean to you?
Jerry: To me, inspiration is someone or something that motivates me to do more than I thought I was capable of; to do that with enthusiasm and with energy, and in my case, to use that to help people.
Toni: Do you know when you are inspired?
Jerry: Yeah. I get a little bit of an adrenaline rush when someone inspires me to do more for them. Something happens inside that makes me just want to do everything I can to help people.
Toni: So, it’s really not for yourself. You are inspired to help others.
Jerry: Absolutely.
Toni: Okay. Wow. So, when you’re inspired to do that, give me some examples of how you’ve done that here in Berks County.
Jerry: Well, I have always been in service-oriented industries, even at a very young age. When I was a young teenager, I had a terrific mentor by the name of Vince Kahler. Mr. Kahler owned Vicary’s Men’s Shop in West Reading on Penn Avenue. I worked for Vince through high school and college, and he taught me so much about customer service and taking care of other people. In his case, it was to make their shopping experience as good as possible so that they would return. I was able to rub elbows with captains of industry and physicians and attorneys. I just learned so much about people.
I use those lessons that Vince Kahler taught me every day now as a funeral planner at Kuhn Funeral Home, also on Penn Avenue in West Reading; but, it’s a little bit different now because what I find is I’m working with people going through probably the worst time of their life, and that is taking care of someone who has passed, someone close to them. I’ve found that if I take what I’ve learned through the years and show them true empathy and be genuine with the sympathy that I have for them, that they trust me and they treat me like a part of their family, which is really what I’m looking for.
One of the things that I do when I first greet a family who’s coming in to plan a funeral is to obviously say to them, “I’m so very sorry that you’re there, but I’m glad that you’re here at Kuhn Funeral Home so that I can help you get through this.” When they come back to me later, after a service, or I bump into them in the general public and they thank me for helping make that experience as easy as possible, that just means the world to me. It inspires me to want to do that over and over and over again for the next family coming to us in their hour of need.
Toni: So, the gentleman who mentored you, it sounds to me like it was all about the human experience.
Jerry: Exactly.
Toni: Okay. With inspiration, are you inspired to provide the best human experience you can for the work that you do now? Is that what you are inspired to do?
Jerry: Yeah, I would say so. Again, I’m inspired to treat these people like they’re a member of my family, and to try and understand what they’re going through; to just make that as easy as possible for them. What I tell them is, “You take care of each other and let me take care of the details. I’ll take care of everything for you.” That’s the way I’ve been taught by Ed Kuhn and Mike Kuhn. That’s how we do things, to take care of people.
Toni: I’m curious, Jerry, if you’re in the industry that you’re in if you find inspiration in what you tend to witness?
Jerry: Very often, yeah. Because what I’m finding is as I get to know these families, what inspires me is the depth of passion that they have for the person they unfortunately are with us to say goodbye to. There are so many great stories and so many great relationships in our community. Again, as I watch them go through this and I work through things with them, I just want to do everything I can to help them. I think that’s why it’s a very special business.
Toni: There’s a lot of reciprocity going on there, isn't there?
Jerry: Yeah. There sure is.
Toni: So, who in Berks County inspires you?
Jerry: I’m inspired by a lot of people. I think we have a great community. Again, that’s why we moved back here, but for me, it starts with my family. I have a wonderful wife who I will be married to soon for 40 years.
Toni: Congratulations.
Jerry: Thank you. High school sweethearts. Grew up in West Reading with me, and we’ve had a great life together. We have three amazing kids that are all in service-oriented industries, as is my wife and my daughter-in-law. I watch them every day affect lives of people; change lives from the very young to the very old. I’m just so proud to be part of their family. Then, we have these two amazing grandchildren that inspire me to want to make their world better for them in the future.
It starts with my family, but I’ve had so many different mentors in my life. I had a terrific grandparent and parent situation. I have amazing brothers and sisters. Five brothers and sisters. I grew up in a community in West Reading where I emulated and admired everyone in my neighborhood. I watched them have great lives. That’s what I wanted to do is have a great life. I was very close to my grandfather, and I learned so many life lessons from him, but mostly about how to treat people with dignity and how to work hard. One of his passions was to repeatedly tell me to stop and think before I spoke and before I did things. Now when I stop and think, I think, “I wonder what Grandpop would do?” He was a great mentor as well.
Now in this stage of my life, I’m inspired by the people I work with through Kuhn Funeral Home, because I’m watching these folks go through just a very tough time in their life When I hear the stories and they tell me about the passion they have for their loved one, I just want to do everything I can to help them. I’m still going through a lot of phases in my life where I admire the people I work with.
Toni: Fantastic. What do you want your legacy to be?
Jerry: That’s a tough question to answer, but I have always been involved in my community. I was that guy that was the Little League coach and the Cub Scout leader. I worked in my church and in other capacities. I was a Borough Councilman for a long time. I was on Rec Board for a great deal of time. I’ve organized Wyomissing’s Memorial Day parade for a lot of years. I think that if by doing that I made the lives of the people that I know just a little bit better and maybe inspired them to get involved, and even if I just put a smile on their face, I think that’s a pretty neat legacy to have, and I’m happy with that.
Toni: It’s interesting too; I don’t know that I’ve had many people in the funeral industry talk about their legacy, but one of the things that we talk about here in the Get Inspired! Project is that people are living their legacy every day, and a lot of people do not realize that. That’s why the legacy question is so hard, but the way you’ve described your life with joy with your family, it sounds like you are living your legacy every day and passing that right along.
Jerry: I got into the funeral industry late in my life. When I joined Kuhn Funeral Home, I was talking to Ed Kuhn, who I admire a great deal. I said, “Boy, I wish I had been here 20 years ago.” He said, “Don’t do that.” He said, “My wife’s philosophy is every day you turn the page and you just keep moving forward.” He said, “You went through a lot of different things in your life to get to this point, and now you’re here because of all the things you’ve learned, and because of the way you’re able to connect with people and help people.” I just try and do that every day. We’re in a different industry. It’s a calling. It’s really not a job.
Toni: It is a calling. It is a calling, and thank goodness there are people like you who handle people in their worst moments that way.
Jerry: Thank you, Toni.
Toni: So, thank you for that, and also thank you for showing up for the Get Inspired! Project.
Jerry: It’s my pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Toni: You’re welcome.
Jerry: I’m honored.
