Colleen Dewar

Colleen was a fiercely strong, independent woman who took enormous pride in her family and her professional life, which included many close friendships. She was a sailor who enjoyed nothing better than a summer’s night at anchor in the Salish Sea. She was a teenage beauty queen who also worked at Matsqui prison with dangerous offenders. She planned the most extravagant birthday parties for her children, baking cakes that would make a pastry chef blush. She created Christmases that looked like they exploded from a movie set. She could reduce anyone to a puddle if they dared cross her. She believed in giving back to the community by supporting the mentally ill. She taught us that communication was the key to relationships. She felt that the purpose of life was to enjoy time with your family. Colleen took pride in a job well done.

Colleen became a Registered Psychiatric Nurse in 1969, the same year she married the love of her life, Ted, whom she had been dating since high school. She began her career in psychiatric nursing at Riverview Hospital. In 1982, she began working as a psychiatric nurse at Pioneer Community Living Association (PCLA), a non-profit organization providing innovative community-based housing and support to people with mild to complex mental illness, sometimes combined with substance use challenges.

PCLA became her life’s work. Colleen was eventually promoted to the role of Executive Director in 1987, and she held this position for 32 years, until her retirement. She was instrumental in six separate expansions of PCLA’s community based residential programs (representing 70 additional beds): CRESST (1992), Elizabeth Barnett Terrace (2001), Lina’s Place (2002), Millers Way (2003), Adrian’s House (2004), and Dominion House (2008). In 2001, Colleen earned the Award of Excellence in Psychiatric Nursing: Leadership & Administration. She was deeply appreciative to be recognized as a leader who gave back to the community.

Colleen loved to travel. She liked to sail, to cruise, to fly, to motorcycle. She planned family trips to California and Hawaii, and she enjoyed many Mexican vacations. While she had a taste for the luxurious, she was willing to sleep on the ground to get her young family to California. She loved a meal out and to talk for hours over a drink. Colleen also loved shopping. She could shop until everyone else would drop; she routinely tested this theory. She could walk so fast in a mall, that security cameras could not capture her, like the Bruce Lee of shopping. Mom could also relax. We see her still, floating on an air mattress in a tide pool, being served drinks off a silver platter by Ted.

Her favourite sport was ironing. She would iron clothes pulled straight out of the dryer or creaselessly hanging in the closet. One regret was that she was not able to pass her enthusiasm or skill on to her children. Her revenge was to send her teenagers to school wearing ironed jeans, creases permanently starched down the front. She believed in cleanliness: the best way to clean a tile floor is on your hand and knees with ammonia and water. She loved to tell stories, sometimes morbid, with a deadpan delivery. She took great pride in her friendships and would light up anytime they came to visit. Her greatest pride was the enduring love she shared with Ted for 53 years of marriage.

Colleen fought valiantly against cancer for eight years. She was defiant to the end. She was proud to have broken out of hospice to enjoy another summer on the boat and one more Christmas. She suffered many health setbacks in the last few years but was unrelenting in her desire to see another day.

She is predeceased by her mother, Daphne Malone and her husband, Mike Malone; her father, Ken Woodford; as well as her brother-in-law, Ron Dewar (Debbie). She leaves behind family and friends who are richer for having known her: Ted Dewar (husband); Ryan Dewar (son), Celidh Catenaccio (daughter); Elizabeth Thomson (daughter-in-law) and Fred Catenaccio (son-in-law); grandchildren Isla and Ewan Dewar, Trinity and Xander Catenaccio; siblings Lynn Barton (Bob), Maureen McLean (Sheldon), Ken Woodford (Ellen, deceased). Nieces and nephews Lisa, Robbie; Jacob, Molly; Greg, Stephanie. Close friends Debbie Reid, Sandi Kroeker, Irene Ralph, Geri Ramdharee and many of her co-workers at PCLA. And so many others.

The family is planning on hosting a memorial in the summer when we can be outside in the sunshine. Colleen would ask that in her memory you hug those who are closest to you, and she would love it if you listened to John Lennon’s “Imagine,” one of her favourite songs.

Please consider a donation to either to BC Cancer (http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/donate) or to PCLA (https://www.pclaservices.ca/donate-now).