Barbara Ann Kociszewski

Barbara Ann Kociszewski passed away on Thursday, September 5, 2024. She was born on August 11, 1948 in Buffalo, NY to Dorothy Margaret (Rycyna) Kociszewski and Frank Joseph Kociszewski. 

Barbara graduated from South Park High School in 1966. She was a parishioner at St. Casimir’s Roman Catholic Church in Buffalo, NY and taught Sunday School there. She went to nursing school and, upon graduation, worked as a Licensed Practitioner Nurse at Deaconess Hospital in Buffalo, NY in the Emergency Room and Obstetrics/Gynecology. After a few years, she went back to college at Trocaire College in Buffalo to obtain her Registered Nursing license. She worked at Buffalo General Hospital after it merged with Deaconess Hospital. She then spent some time as a nun with the Order of Sisters of St. Frances in Amherst, NY. She left the Order and returned to nursing, working at Buffalo General Hospital in the Emergency Room and then the Medical Intensive Care Unit, where she worked for the rest of her career. She was a Charge Nurse and a Nursing Preceptor in the Medical Intensive Care Unit.

She moved to Augusta, GA to be near her family in 2006. She was an active member of The Church of the Most Holy Trinity in Augusta where she read the Rosary before mass. She vacationed in Charleston, SC often, then finally moved with family to Charleston in 2021. 

She was very close with her parents and enjoyed spending time with them daily. Barbara loved animals and had many dogs while growing up. As an adult she had Persian cats. She liked pop, rock, and all kinds of music. While growing up in Buffalo, she had a radio she would play while sitting on the porch and the radio was always on in her car. She enjoyed having a drink, eating buffalo wings with friends after work, and being cool. Her favorite getaway was visiting Niagara Falls and Canada, which she did often while living in Western New York.

Barbara is predeceased by her parents, Frank Joseph and Dorothy Margaret (Rycyna) Kociszewski and sister Dianne Marie Weisman. She is survived by her nephew, David N. Ghazi; two sisters, Antoinette Majewski (John) of Montgomery, AL and Cindy Kross of Buffalo, NY; several nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews. 

Barbara was sweet, kind, and gregarious and will be missed by all who knew her.

There will be a Wake on Thursday, October 10, 2024, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (Rosary: 7:00 pm and Nurse's Honor Guard: 7:15 pm), at McAlister-Smith Funeral and Cremation, 347 Folly Road, Charleston, SC, 29412.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, October 11, 2024, at 10:00 am, at The Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, 120 Broad Street, Charleston, SC 29401. Burial will follow at Magnolia Cemetery, 70 Cunnington Avenue, Charleston, SC 29405.

Expressions of sympathy may be viewed or submitted online at mcalister-smith.com/.

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to McAlister-Smith Funeral and Cremation, James Island, 347 Folly Rd, Charleston, SC 29412, 843-614-8494.