Son of slain North Bend woman reminds us to ‘cherish’ Mother’s Day
May 9, 2013, 6:45 AM | Updated: 4:54 pm
Mother's Day was not gift-based for 32-year-old Erik Pieczatkowski and his mom, Lucy, who was killed on New Year's Eve. It was about spending time together. (Family Photo)
(Family Photo)
There are a lot of things that Erik Pieczatkowski misses about his mom, Lucy.
For one, she was a wonderful cook.
“I haven’t tasted anything better and she did everything from scratch,” he said.
Roast, pork chops, gravy, mashed potatoes and something they called tuna casserole (but it was really macaroni and cheese), were some of his favorites.
“And seven-layer casserole,” he said. “I used to hate it and now it’s like I can’t live without it.”
His mother, 57-year-old Lucinda Pieczatkowski, was killed in a hit and run on New Year’s Eve 2012. She was struck by a truck while walking to her home in North Bend. While the King County Sheriff’s Office has made significant progress in the case, the driver has never been arrested.
Sunday will be the first Mother’s Day since her death and Erik, her only child, spoke with KIRO Radio this week as part of a special series dedicated to moms.
“It’s going to be an important day,” Erik, 32, said of this Mother’s Day. “I don’t think it’s going to be a sad day for me. I think it’s going to be a day of celebration.”
For the past several years, he and his mom had a Mother’s Day tradition. They would go to Emerald Downs and bet on the horses, although Lucy wasn’t big into betting, he said. She cared more about the color or the name than anything else.
“It was more about the time being spent together,” he said.
And although his mom is no longer here, he and his family plan to spend Mother’s Day in the same place in her honor. But it is difficult for him to reconcile the fact that the person who killed his mom can spend that special day with theirs.
“Not to say that he deserves not to be around his mom, everybody does,” he said. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that you haven’t decided to step up when you’ve taken someone else’s mother away.”
Erik said Mother’s Day is a day to put whatever differences there may be aside and “cherish time with your mom” while you still can.
“I would never wish that on anybody, to not spend time with their mom if they have the time to do it.”
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