sister-in-law
Salon owner dies after cancer battle
BY ERIN GRACE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Even in her final moments, Dawn Krzemien was thinking about work.
Take care of the staff, she instructed her husband, Damien. Give them what they need for clients.
Cancer had cast its shadow over the two years Krzemien had spent running a new downtown salon, Urbane.
But a rare form of the disease and the difficult treatments required to fight it didn't dim the efforts of this mother of two who had greeted life with grit and hard work. She had slung beers, answered phones and done whatever else was needed to achieve her dream of opening her own shop.
Krzemien died Saturday at Immanuel Medical Center. She was 37.
A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Christ the King Catholic Church, 654 S. 86th St.
Krzemien was born in Omaha and graduated from Fort Calhoun High School. She married Damien in 1991. The couple have two children: son Gunnar, 9, daughter Daphne, 8.
Dawn and Damien Krzemien waited tables at the Dubliner for about seven years. Dawn Krzemien worked at the Hair Market and Novel Hair and studied at Capitol School of Hair Styling and Esthetics under that business's owner, the late M. Lyal McCaig. McCaig mentored Krzemien and helped her acquire the space for Urbane at 1007 Farnam St. He died of cancer in June.
Krezmien's own diagnosis came a month after the salon opened in fall 2005. She had complained of back pain and fatigue, symptoms she and her husband chalked up to the stress of opening a new business.
Then she discovered a lump near her neck.
"They told us it would be two to five years," Damien Krzemien said. "It was two. . . . We really thought we had more time."
Dawn Krzemien endured intense chemotherapy and radiation treatments, even going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for care.
It was there she bought herself a silver necklace with a charm bearing these words: "I am strong."
That was evident in how Dawn Krzemien lived. She didn't stop working, didn't pity herself and remained "an excellent mother" to her children.
She also dealt bravely, her husband said, with losing her hair.
"'It will grow back,'" Dawn Krzemien would tell her husband. "'We own a salon. We change hair all the time.'"
In addition to her husband and children, Krzemien is survived by her mother, Marty Glass of Omaha; father, Phillip Glass of Washington County; grandfather Donald Wynne of Omaha; three sisters, Wendy Crouch, Jill Nelsen and Elsbeth Glass, all of Omaha; and six brothers, Kyle, Benjamin, Christopher, Matthew, Jason and Joshua Glass, all of Omaha.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10079556
BY ERIN GRACE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Even in her final moments, Dawn Krzemien was thinking about work.
Take care of the staff, she instructed her husband, Damien. Give them what they need for clients.
Cancer had cast its shadow over the two years Krzemien had spent running a new downtown salon, Urbane.
But a rare form of the disease and the difficult treatments required to fight it didn't dim the efforts of this mother of two who had greeted life with grit and hard work. She had slung beers, answered phones and done whatever else was needed to achieve her dream of opening her own shop.
Krzemien died Saturday at Immanuel Medical Center. She was 37.
A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Christ the King Catholic Church, 654 S. 86th St.
Krzemien was born in Omaha and graduated from Fort Calhoun High School. She married Damien in 1991. The couple have two children: son Gunnar, 9, daughter Daphne, 8.
Dawn and Damien Krzemien waited tables at the Dubliner for about seven years. Dawn Krzemien worked at the Hair Market and Novel Hair and studied at Capitol School of Hair Styling and Esthetics under that business's owner, the late M. Lyal McCaig. McCaig mentored Krzemien and helped her acquire the space for Urbane at 1007 Farnam St. He died of cancer in June.
Krezmien's own diagnosis came a month after the salon opened in fall 2005. She had complained of back pain and fatigue, symptoms she and her husband chalked up to the stress of opening a new business.
Then she discovered a lump near her neck.
"They told us it would be two to five years," Damien Krzemien said. "It was two. . . . We really thought we had more time."
Dawn Krzemien endured intense chemotherapy and radiation treatments, even going to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., for care.
It was there she bought herself a silver necklace with a charm bearing these words: "I am strong."
That was evident in how Dawn Krzemien lived. She didn't stop working, didn't pity herself and remained "an excellent mother" to her children.
She also dealt bravely, her husband said, with losing her hair.
"'It will grow back,'" Dawn Krzemien would tell her husband. "'We own a salon. We change hair all the time.'"
In addition to her husband and children, Krzemien is survived by her mother, Marty Glass of Omaha; father, Phillip Glass of Washington County; grandfather Donald Wynne of Omaha; three sisters, Wendy Crouch, Jill Nelsen and Elsbeth Glass, all of Omaha; and six brothers, Kyle, Benjamin, Christopher, Matthew, Jason and Joshua Glass, all of Omaha.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10079556
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" That was evident in how Dawn Krzemien lived. She didn't stop working, didn't pity herself and remained "an excellent mother" to her children. "
This speaks volumes of this strong woman. R.I.P. Dawn.0 -
quote:Originally posted by spryor
" That was evident in how Dawn Krzemien lived. She didn't stop working, didn't pity herself and remained "an excellent mother" to her children. "
This speaks volumes of this strong woman. R.I.P. Dawn.
+1 spryor,prayers go out to her family and friends,sorry for your loss mp5, Loko[:(]0 -
Sorry for your loss, she sonds like a great person 0 -
Sorry to hear about this, but if it's any consoloation, she lived her life to its fullest and went out like a champ. 0 -
A life well lived!
Sorry for your loss.0 -
Condolences. 0 -
sorry to hear 0 -
...Thoughts and prayers sent, best... 
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Sorry to hear the sad news. 0 -
37 is way too young.
Sorry for your loss.0 -
An American hero if there ever was one. 0 -
sorry man 0 -
condolances and prayers sent, way too young, sorry 0
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