By Laura Brennan
In a reflection she wrote for her church bulletin, Colleen Wishall described herself simply as “a wife and mother of four young children… who has been blessed over the years to see God use her little yeses to share His Love.”
Colleen, wife of Jeremy Wishall, and mother of four children, three of whom were Regina Pacis Academy students, died at 39 years old on July 27 after a 19-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
Regina Pacis Academy’s Annual Fall Gala on November 7 will honor her legacy, and the school has created the Colleen Wishall Scholarship Fund “in recognition of her life as an extraordinary example to us in all aspects of her faith, family, and friendship.”
In his homily at her funeral Mass, Father Luke Suarez said: “She was a beautiful person — a wonderful kind of ordinary. She was normal, deeply faithful, yet never in a way that set her apart from the rest of us.”
“Her faith was never grounded in platitudes or easy statements,” said Father Suarez, pastor of the Church of the Holy Spirit. “It grew as she wrestled with the crosses God entrusted to her — the cancer diagnosis itself, the fear of God that followed, the loss of energy and normalcy, the daily parental and physical limitations she never asked for and did not want. Yet reading her words, one can watch how the Lord used those very crosses to shape her, to quiet her fears, and to draw her into deeper trust.”
He said that when he brought her the sacraments in the hospital, “One couldn’t help but notice that her eyes held a unique sparkle. Over the next several days that sparkle became a radiance — almost a glow. Artists might paint it as a halo. As her body grew weaker, the beauty of her soul seemed to shine more brightly. The faith, trust, courage, and love that God was cultivating within her became increasingly visible.”
Colleen wrote short bulletin reflections on faith and love in the months before she died. The first, which appeared in January 2026, began “2025 was not the best year of my life.” She described her ambulance ride, ER visit, and ultimately her cancer diagnosis.
Then she pivoted and asked, “If 2025 was the worst year of my life, why can’t 2026 be the best? … What if I woke up each day asking the Lord to surprise me — to surprise me with His goodness and with His presence? What if I actually followed the Scripture and asked Him for good things? I was so filled with joy by this thought that I knew it was Holy Spirit inspired.”
She ended that reflection with an invitation, “I invite you to ask God to surprise you. Ask Him to make His presence known and to give you the eyes, the ears, and the open heart to notice!”
She wrote 15 faithful reflections in her final months and, according to her obituary, she appreciated the opportunity Father Suarez gave her to share her faith with others.
“I can’t tell you how many people have said to me these past few days that your momma was the closest thing to a saint they have ever met!” said Colleen’s sister Erin Roman to Colleen’s children in her remarks at the funeral. “Maybe one day you will get to say that your mom is a saint, how cool will that be!?! And maybe you kids will become saints yourselves! I know one of the last challenges your mommy gave you was to research and learn about all the saints who lost a parent at an early age. I think the two we came up with that day were Saint Therese and Saint John Paul II.”
Colleen’s children are in sixth grade, third grade and kindergarten at Regina Pacis Academy, said their principal, Kimberly Quatela. “[Colleen] loved being at the Academy and seeing her children and all the students mature academically, but more important spiritually,” her obituary said.
Principal Quatela said, “We’re establishing the Colleen Wishall Scholarship Fund as a way to build the fund of necessary financial aid for families now and then into the future.”
Regina Pacis Academy is a Catholic classical school in Norwalk, which began as a homeschool co-op with 23 students and four teachers. The school currently enrolls 120 students from Pre-K through eighth grade. It is the only Cardinal Newman school in Connecticut, Quatela said.
“Being a technology-free school means that students are not engaging with technology,” said Mrs. Quatela. “There’s no iPads, there’s no smartboards. It’s great teachers, great books, pen, paper, chalkboard, and cursive.” As part of the integration of the classical Catholic experience, one Mass each month is celebrated in Latin.
Each week there is school-wide Mass. Students also pray the rosary as a community and are invited to Eucharistic Adoration to spend time with the Lord. “Catholicism is imbued in everything that we do,” Quatela said. “It’s just a very joyful learning environment. It has a very strong family community feel. Being a small school, we preserve that, and that’s something we feel very strongly about keeping.”
The Annual Fall Gala will be held November 7 at Serafresca at the Italian Center in Stamford. For further information, go to https://reginapacisacademy.org and look under Support RPA.
Colleen’s reflections can be found on the home page of the Church of the Holy Spirit at: www.holyspiritstamford.org.
