'Holiday Happenings': Pat Shaw reminisces about Sheila Colan

Story and Photo by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

The display at Pat Shaw’s table included a variety of wreaths, as well as a quilt that was being raffled off.

The wreaths had been made by Sheila Colan, who passed away on Feb. 20. Shaw said her friend was diagnosed with leukemia at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center on Dec. 31, 2023. “There was nothing they (the doctors) could do for her. Her son, Stephen, took her to his house because his wife, Heidi, is a nurse.”

Shaw, Colan’s best friend, was raffling the quilt and selling the wreaths to raise money for Roswell Park.

“She made all the wreaths,” Shaw said. “The material that was left over after her son went through everything. He gave (that) to me and said, ‘Whatever you want to do with it.’ So, I talked to a lady by the name of Kathy James. She put that quilt together with all of the different material. When it was finished, she decided that she was now going to sew it. So, she hand-stitched the whole quilt.

“We’re taking a dollar a raffle ticket or seven tickets for $5.”

“Holiday Happenings” was something Colan enjoyed. During the 2021 event, when she sold her wreaths and other creative works, she said, “I was a floral designer for many years when I worked, and I just had that creative streak, I guess. I inherited it from my mother and grandmother in England. They were florists. I enjoy doing this as a pastime. It’s just seeing what I can create with whatever I’ve got in hand.”

The friendship between Shaw and Colan ran deep.

“We were kind of like sisters, rather than friends,” Colan said. “We called each other every morning at 8:30. If I didn’t call her by a quarter to 9, she called me and vice versa. We made a joke out of it. We said, ‘Well, we made it through the night. What are we going to do today?’ ”

Shaw and Colan were often seen helping the community. On one of those days, late in December 2021, they teamed up with veterans’ organizations to help deliver Christmas gifts to patients at Veterans Hospital in Buffalo.

At the time, Shaw said she participated in the project of putting together gift bags for veterans that was organized by the United Methodist Women at Trinity Church.

“We do 50 bags, four times a year: Christmas, early spring, around the fourth of July, and fall, which we try to tie in with Christmas,” she said. “A lot of times, they (the veterans) will call and say, ‘We need four or five bags. Can you help us out?’ We will throw four or five bags together and send them down. And, if we need more (gift bags), we always have it because we do for the ladies, as well.”

Colan added, “I feel like (the veterans’) mom. I had brothers and sisters in the war. They were vets, you would call them. I am sure that these men really appreciate what they get.”

In addition, Shaw said, Colan “was a member of St. Stephen (Roman Catholic Church), and she did all the flower arranging and everything at St. Stephen inside and worked on all the flowers outside in the summertime.

“She was always doing something for somebody,” Shaw said. “She was that way. She was a very kind person.”