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Mary Elizabeth
Kloska
528 Cedar St.
Elkhart, IN 46514
marykloska@yahoo.com
Language Skills: advanced Russian and Polish, intermediate
Spanish, intermediate Latin, intermediate-low Italian, intermediate-low varying Slavic languages
EDUCATION
BA in Theology
(concentrated in Philosophy, Russian and Italian studies as well).
University of Notre
Dame
Notre Dame, IN
T.h.D. student at Pontifex University (presently finishing up my dissertation on “Littleness, Spousal Love and Fiat as the Instruments Jesus
used in Enduring the Cross and the Means of a Soul Uniting with Him in Crucified
Love.”)
*Certified Practitioner in Art Therapy
*Certified in CPR/AED and Bloodborne Pathogens
*I have published 8 books, including one on the spiritual
formation of children.
Work Experience
Preemie Twins Infant Night
Nanny for Gebhart Family
Wabash,
Indiana
January, 2024-Present
Responsibilities:
•
This family had 4 children
under 7 when they gave birth to preemie infant twins -growing their family to 6
children under 7. Although the parents are very present in the home, they
needed extra support several nights a week caring for the babies. Being in the
4lb range they took a very long time to coax to eat. I help them 3-4 nights a
week for almost 13 hours a night, helping to keep them dry, fed, happy,
sleeping and somewhat scheduled. I also cleaned prepared and cleaned bottles.
Part Time Infant Nanny for
Vandewielle Family
South
Bend, Indiana
January, 2023-October, 2023
Responsibilities:
•
This family had one infant who
I cared for 1-3 days a week depending on the need. The dad was a fireman who
worked 24-hour shifts and the mom was a nurse working long days. I worked one
to three 10-11 hour days a week to care for their baby when their schedules
overlapped. I began when the baby was 3 months old and continued until she
turned 1-year-old and they put her in daycare.
Full Time Weekend Mather Family
Nanny/House Manager
Hinsdale,
IL –Winnetka, IL
January, 2022- January, 2024
Responsibilities:
•
This was a family who had four
young children under the age of 5 when I started. I worked Thurs/Fri-Sun/Mon to
help support Mom and other household staff in caring for the children,
following routines, preparing meals, doing light laundry and pick-up in the
house. We enjoyed playing together, doing art and music, cooking, reading and
time spent outside. The parent was a widow and had a very full schedule and so
it was my responsibility to keep the house running and the children happy and
well cared for. I often carried for several other children during my shift (children of relatives or friends who would visit). At times I counted 10-15 young children who I was watching in the playroom with me. I also had full charge of the children when their Mom
traveled for longer periods of time and spent weeks down at their home in
Sea Island, Georgia as well.
Kupke Family Nanny
Goshen, IN
August, 2021 –January, 2022
Responsibilities:
•
This was a family with four young boys (12, 10, 8 and 5) whose father died of
cancer. I worked 40 hours a week –mostly evenings and overnights on
weekends –to help support the Mom. I cooked, baked, cleaned, did laundry, played sports, read, did art, music, helped with homework, organized the house and simply
spent time together.
Part-time (Bilderback/Soetaert) Family Nanny
Mishawaka, IN
October, 2021 –December, 2021
Responsibilities:
• This was a family with twin infant girls. I worked 28 hours a week taking care of the babies while their parents worked. This was a temporary position helping fill in while they waited for a daycare option to open up. I fed, dressed, played with, changed diapers, sang and comforted babies doing everything needed for them during the time I was there. I also did light housekeeping such as cleaning/preparing bottles, and helping folding/organizing clothes. When their two-year-old sister was at home from daycare I also played with her.
Stavole Family Nanny
South Bend, IN
August, 2020 –August, 2021
Responsibilities:
•
This was a family with a 14-month-old when I started, and with a baby sister
added after two months. I took care of both children full-time, including
dressing, feeding, sleep schedules, reading, crafts, music, playing and
enjoying long walks to the park. I also helped with kitchen dishes and
laundry.
Miller Family Night Nanny for Infant Twins
Goshen, IN
December, 2019-July 2020
Responsibilities:
• I cared for infant twins for 9-10 hours
during the night hours as needed. I made formula, fed, diapered and rocked them
and helped them to sleep. I also have helped them during the day when
they were too sick for day care or when their day care was closed -helping full
time during Co-Vid 19.
Downey Family Nanny
Granger, IN
September, 2019 (with occasional help to the present)
Responsibilities:
• This is a family with 8 children between the ages of 13
and 18 months. The mother homeschools. I work one morning a week primarily
helping with the three youngest children (5, 3 and 18 months). I do simple
pre-school papers, reading, crafts, baking, music, playing and long walks
outside. I also spend time on occasion with the older children doing crafts or
playing (sometimes teaching) guitar.
Kloska Family Nanny
Bristol, IN
September, 2019 –March, 2020
Responsibilities:
• This is a family with 10 children between the ages of 15
and 5 months. The mother homeschools. I work two mornings a week primarily
helping with the three youngest children (3, 2 and 5 months). I do simple
pre-school papers, reading, crafts, music, playing and enjoying long walks to
the park. I also help the older children, on occasion, with their schoolwork.
Benoit Family Nanny (with both natural and foster children)
Niles, MI
September, 2019 –March, 2020
Responsibilities:
• At times I helped them full time and
other times I worked only 1-2 10 hour days caring for their three
children (who were 5, 2.5 and 8 months old). I helped to homeschool the oldest boy
and provide pre-school activities for the 2.5 year-old-old girl. I also homeschooled their foster children. I did simple
school, crafts, took walks to parks, played, read, light housekeeping and meals. I also
cared for their 4-year-old foster child, as well as other foster children when
they had a placement.
Comeau Family Nanny
Mishawaka, IN
September, 2019 –November, 2019
Responsibilities:
• I worked 18 hours a week helping with the family's 6
children between the ages of 2-13-years-old. I helped with cleaning, laundry,
meals, driving, playing (including crafts), bathing and bedtime routines. The
children lost their father to cancer in January of 2019 and I was just a
physical, emotional and spiritual support to them and their mother.
Night and Day Nanny for Newborn Triplets (Mathew Family)
Chicago, IL (Streeterville
area)
August, 2018-July, 2019
Responsibilities:
• I worked 80 hours a week as a night/morning and then day
nanny for newborn triplets. I had care of them alone, providing love and for
all of their needs, including rocking, diapering, bathing, feeding, playing
with them, etc.; My job also included work such as making all formula (even in
advance for all times I wouldn’t be there), cleaning bottles, organizing and
laundering clothes/bed sheets/towels, etc, emptying dishwasher and diaper pail,
keeping a log of the children’s schedules, diapers and food intake and helping
them learn to sleep.
St. Joseph’s Children’s Home
East Chicago, IN
March/April 2017
Responsibilities:
· I volunteered with their
abused/abandoned babies.
Schmidt Family Night Nanny
Elkhart, IN
6 months
Responsibilities:
· I spent about 6 months
helping a friend with night-care of her adopted newborn twin grandbabies -they
were sickly and on heart and breathing monitoring machines. In her 70's she and
her husband received full custody of them and were exhausted -so I would come
from about 5 until after midnight so she could get some rest.
Family Nanny
South Bend, IN
Three times over seven years
Responsibilities:
· I also was the full-time
caregiver (on and off) for 5 young
children as their father struggled with cancer 3 times over 7 years. I fully
ran their home –food preparation, laundry, driving, school help, everything
that their Mom/Dad would have been doing for them. I lived with them
(overnight) during this time.
Diocesan Hermit of Crucified Love Diocese of Fort Wayne -South
Bend
Elkhart, IN
August 2011 to August 2014
Responsibilities:
· A life of primarily prayer with increased silence/solitude, but including welcoming those seeking spiritual support/counsel, as well as children.
Mission Work and Hermit Life -all over the world
Siberia, Russia, Poland,
Nigeria, Tanzania, South Africa, Israel, England, Ireland, Bosnia, Italy,
France, Mexico, the Philippines
August 2003 to August 2011
Responsibilities:
•Prisons
• troubled teens
•homeless
•victims of concentration
camps
•orphans
•street children
•retreats (for children,
women, seminarians, parishes, young people)
•conferences and individual
counsel for priests and religious sisters
•childcare
•prayer ministry in areas of
violence
•spiritual counsel
•prayer meetings
•hosting AA groups and
pantomime theater
• pro-life work
• family formation
• pilgrimages
•cleaning
•rehabilitating street women
•deliverance ministry
• normal mission upkeep
(includes pretty much anything needed from doctoring simple wounds, gardening,
cooking, braiding hair, playing sports to 'make-do' plumbing problems) and
simply loving those who nobody loved.
•Also time was spent
studying (and teaching) Theology and Languages.
Upendo Children’s Home
Moshi,
Tanzania
September –October 2010
Responsibilities:
•
Changing clothes/diapers, feeding, playing with, soothing –complete care for
infants/toddlers (usually up to 10-15 children at a time, often alone.)
St. Joseph’s Hospital for
Chronically Ill Children
Capetown,
South Africa
November, 2010
Responsibilities:
•
Changing clothes/diapers, feeding, playing with, soothing infants/toddlers;
•
Organizing closets/clothes, odd cleaning, chores and food preparation with the
sisters
Open Arms Orphanage for
Children
Kumga South Africa
December 2010 –January 2011
Responsibilities:
•
Sports, art, playing with, baking, gardening, teaching, personal interaction
with all of the children (including outings to the store, plays, movies, etc.,)
ages newborn- around 13-years-old.
Founder of Catholic Mission
-Eastern Siberia
Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity/
in Diocese of St. Joseph/Irkutsk
Krasnoyarsk and Kansk,
Russia
May 2001 to May 2003
Responsibilities:
My time was spent in a myriad of ways:
•simple catechesis
•work with youth
• retreats
• establishing AA meetings
• pro-life work
• homeless ministry
• traveling up to 7 or 8
hours to visit Catholics
•The people we served were
either themselves or children of those sent to the gulags many years ago. The
older babushki simply needed visitors and many children of the streets simply
needed love. I returned on a month visa yearly for about 7 years to visit these
friends.
Volunteer Teacher 6th-8th
Grades
St. Anthony’s School
Robstown, TX
August 2000 to June 2001
Responsibilities:
•I taught Math, Science,
Literature and Religion to 6th, 7th and 8th Grade students. This was a very
poor school in a border town and the classes were small with half of the
children I had having learning disabilities and so I was told to 'modify' their
work. I was given room and board nearby and paid a small stipend. I also spent
the weekends visiting Youth City (a juvenile prison) nearby to teach Sunday
School.
Volunteer Teacher Youth City Jail (a juvenile prison)
Robstown, TX
August 2000 to June 2001
Responsibilities:
· I also spent the weekends
visiting Youth City (a juvenile prison) nearby to teach Sunday School.
Infant and Toddler
Caregiver
Child Abuse Prevention
Center -CAPS
Elkhart, IN
September 1993 to December
1998
Responsibilities:
• I was in charge of caring
for all of the infants and toddlers while their parents were in parenting
classes. For the last hour of the session I facilitated a parent/child
interaction activity.
Wood Stacker
American Millwork
Factory
Elkhart, IN
May 1996 to August 1999
Responsibilities:
• I only worked the summers
of 1996, 1997, 1998 and briefly 1999 (I did simple accounting/paper work the
latter summer in an office). The manual labor was stacking 8'-16' 2x4's and
sometimes grading the wood for molding.
Hostess/Waitress
Harry's Restaurant
Edwardsburg, MI
June 1996 to August 1996
Responsibilities:
•Hostessing
and waiting tables
Golf Camp Counselor
Notre
Dame, IN
University
of Notre Dame Golf Camp
July 1995 to July 1995
Responsibilities:
•I
was a camp counselor who had to be on-site to supervise the visiting female
campers.
Housekeeper, Maid
Holiday Inn
Elkhart, IN
June 1995 to August 1995
Responsibilities:
•I cleaned hotel rooms.
Merchandiser/Sales
321 Interior
Design
Elkhart, IN
September 1991 to August
1995 -(I continued to work on all of my breaks during my time at Notre Dame as
well (1995-1999).)
Responsibilities:
• A small business owner of
an Interior Design store hired me to come in after school, weekends and breaks
to help run the store for her. I stocked and priced high-end interior
decorating items, helped people choose gifts and with simple interior decorating,
gift-wrapped, cashier work and simple accounting for her books.
CCD Teacher
St. Thomas Parish
Elkhart, IN
August 1993 to May 1995
Responsibilities:
• (The dates may be off) -I
developed and taught a Preschool CCD program for young children on Sunday
mornings.
Corn Detasseler
Elkhart County, IN
June 1993 to August 1993
Responsibilities:
•I rode on large machinery
and picked tassels from corn.
AWARDS
Elkhart Young Woman of the
Year
May 1998
I was nominated by CAPS –Child
Abuse Prevention Services (where I worked throughout High School) for this
award for being an exceptional example of service.
BOOKS
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska. The Holiness of
Womanhood St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media. Published July, 2020.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska Out of the Darkness St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and
Media. Published January, 2021.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska A Heart Frozen in the Wilderness: Reflections of a Siberian
Missionary St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media. Published May 13, 2021.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska In Our Lady’s Shadow: The Spirituality of Praying for
Priests St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media. Published March, 2021.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska Mornings with Mary: A Rosary Prayer Book St. Louis, MO:
En Route Books and Media. Published September 14, 2021.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska Raising Children of the Cross: The Spiritual Formation of
Children St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media. Published November, 2021.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska House of Gold: A Marian Consecration to the Immaculate and
Sorrowful Infant Heart of Mary St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and Media.
Published May 31, 2022.
Mary
Elizabeth Kloska Consumed by Love: A Missionary
Handbook for Priestly and Lay Formation St. Louis, MO: En Route Books and
Media. Published July, 2023.
Founder and
President of the Fiat Foundation _
The ‘Fiat Foundation’ is a
501(c)3 whose mission is to provide funding for free Catholic materials to
those physically or spiritually most in need both here in the US and abroad.
The primary focus is on helping priests, religious, foreign missions and persecuted
Christians through providing free copies of Mary Kloska’s books, art, music,
retreats and catechetical materials. Presently the Fiat Foundation is serving
missions in over 25 countries. For more information please see: https://www.marykloskafiat.com/donations-to-mary-s-ministry
Mary has served as
Founder and President from 2022-Present.
Founder and
Director of Children of the Cross Prayer Groups
This consists of a few small groups in the US, 800 children in
Pakistan, several groups in Afghanistan, and thousands of children in Nigeria,
the Cameroon, Uganda and Ethiopia. For more information please see: https://www.marykloskafiat.com/children-of-the-cross-prayer-groups
Mary has served as Founder and Director from 2021-Present.
Retreat Master______________________________________________________________
The Holiness of Womanhood Retreat -given in Russian in Kansk, Siberia
-2003
The Holiness of Womanhood Retreat -given in Russian in Achinsk, Siberia
-2007
The Holiness of Womanhood Retreat -given in Polish in Krzydlina Mala,
Poland -2006
The Holiness of Womanhood Retreat -given in English -Indiana, US -2006
The Holiness of Womanhood Retreat -given in English -Indiana, US -2020
Out of the Darkness Retreat -given in English -Indiana, US -2021
In Our Lady’s Shadow: the Spirituality of
Praying for Priests –Presentation given in English -Indiana, US
-2021
In Our Lady’s Shadow: the Spirituality of Praying for Priests
–Presentation Spanish
version -Indiana, US -2021
Host
of Weekly WCAT RADIO Podcast The Heart of Fiat Crucified Love __________________
This is a weekly podcast about the interior spiritual life
-it presently consists of 137 programs.
https://wcatradio.com/heartoffiatcrucifiedlove/
Interviews________________________________________________________________________
Mary Kloska has been involved in over 30 interviews for
WCAT radio -both as a host and as a guest. Most can be found here: https://www.marykloskafiat.com/interviews
Other
Ministries___________________________________________________________________
Iconographer and owner of Artist Shop www.marykloskafiat.threadless.com -2020
Musician and publisher of ‘Fiat’ CD (available on all music platforms) -2020
Volunteer with Catholic Charities aiding in Ukrainian Refugee
Assistance -2023
Additional
Information
My name is Mary. I am 47 years old
and was raised in a huge Polish family (12 brothers and sisters) along with a
lot of foster babies and other needy people in and out of the house. I
presently have 70+ nieces and nephews, most of whom live close to our family
‘headquarters’, so children are simply part of my life. In addition to family
and plenty of outside babysitting, I worked for 5 years at Child Abuse
Prevention Services supervising infants and toddlers and helping in
child/parent interaction. They nominated me for our city’s ‘Young Woman of the
Year.’ I’ve lived a very unique life. Upon graduating from Notre Dame in 1999 I
spent almost 20 years in the missions serving the poor (including orphanages)
as well as praying as a consecrated hermit all over the world –Siberia, Nigeria,
Tanzania, South Africa, Philippines, Mexico, the Holy Land and all over Europe
as well. These included Upendo Children's Home, Moshi Tanzania; St. Joseph's
Hospital, Capetown South Africa; Open Arms, Kumga South Africa; orphanages in
Poland and Russia and lots and lots of street children (including those living
the trash dumps of 'Smoky Mountain' in the Philippines). I also spent quite
some time caring for my friend's small babies/children in Poland.
Infants and toddlers are my
specialty, although I have experience with children of all ages, cultures and
socioeconomic backgrounds. I volunteer taught 6th, 7th and 8th grade for one
year in South Texas, including children with disabilities. I developed and
taught a Pre-school CCD program at a church as well as taught Sunday school to
troubled teens at a juvenile prison. I also was the full-time caregiver (on and
off) of my brother's 5 young children as he struggled with cancer 3 times over
7 years. And I spent about 6 months helping a friend with night-care of her
adopted newborn twin grandbabies -they were sickly and on heart and breathing
monitoring machines. I have also volunteered at a Home for Abandoned Babies and
Children. I spent a year working 80 hours a week as a night and day nanny for
newborn triplets. I have taken care of three sets of twins and helped many
large families. My entire life has been with small children.
I am a very clean person (which
made the missions difficult at times) and prefer organization, although I am
flexible, patient and laid-back, especially with children. Love was always my
rule. I speak Russian and Polish pretty well after spending 2 years in Eastern
Siberia and many years back and forth from Poland. I studied Italian at Notre
Dame and so when I find myself in Italian company I usually understand. I
understand Spanish and could pick it up again rather quickly. Languages come
and go for me –when I lived in Africa I picked up the Bantu languages and
Swahili. When I lived with the French I was able to communicate. And pretty
much any Slavic language I understand. I love to paint, especially icons. I
have my own Artist Shop. I love to cook and bake, although I rarely follow
recipes exactly. Because good doctors and medicines were rarely available all
of those years, I learned quite a bit about natural remedies and herbs. I
garden, play guitar and always have a book. I write (especially on spiritual
topics or about the experiences I've encountered) –and I have published eight
books. I have one music CD published and host a weekly radio/podcast program. And
I love to be outside, especially exercising –this time I use to really think
and pray. My heart is very sensitive, especially to anyone suffering. These are
all parts of my life that I share with the children around me (crafts, reading,
singing, outdoors, baking, etc.) My approach with children tends to be the
attachment parenting style –babies cry because they need something. I don’t
ever remember not being able to calm a crying child. In fact, sometimes parents
would give me their children when they were upset because ‘Aunt Mary’ has ‘her
way.’
