The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Beloved crossing guards remembered by town
Mother, daughter die 11 days apart
MIDDLETOWN — Longtime police records clerk and crossing guard Colleen Watrous, who died Dec. 9 at age 61, was recalled by friends and family as a devoted mother, creative and talented floral designer and enthusiastic lover of life.
She died the day before her 62nd birthday of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
Her mother, Pat Chapman, a crossing guard stationed at the old St. John’s School, died 11 days earlier.
Watrous, who worked for the city from 2002 until she left in 2014 due to her illness, leaves behind her husband, Mark Watrous; a daughter, Meghan; and sons Ernie and Timothy.
“Since she’s passed, I haven’t heard a bad thing about her,” Meghan Watrous said.
Many may remember Colleen Watrous when she worked in the lunchroom at Wesley Elementary School while her children were younger.
Family said Watrous was thrilled to be a grandmother. She would delight in bringing her granddaughter Alaina to community events.
“She took Alaina everywhere. She had her there dressed up in an Easter dress and tights and shoes with her little basket, ready to look for eggs,” her daughter said.
“She was always there for us kids. She could have had a longer working career, but she made the choice to stay home, and was there for us,” according to Watrous’ daughter. She felt it was important to give back, her daughter said, and took part in many charitable events, including the holiday drive organized by the Police Department.
Colleen Watrous was a talented artist and crafter, and often brought her daughter along to garden club classes when she was a girl. “They had a tea party once a year. My mom was a pretty simple lady when it came time to dressing up. She wasn’t very fancy, but on tea day, she’d get her fancy hat. She’d get a beautiful dress and her shoes.”
She was adamant about teaching her children the delights of the natural world, her daughter said. She would take them on “adventures,” to attractions such as cranberry bogs and whale watching, and when Meghan Watrous was older, Friday girls’ night.
“She’d show us how to grow milkweed, because it was important they pollinate the flowers. That way, the Monarch butterflies could eat it, because they were going extinct,” her daughter
said.
She would caution her children about cutting milkweed pods. “They have all that fluff inside and the birds need that to line their nests,” Meghan Watrous recalled.
Middletown Police Lt. Heather Desmond, a coworker, recalled Watrous being a thoughtful, softspoken, kindhearted person, always thinking about others.
“I never heard her say a negative word around anyone. She wouldn’t do big things, but there was a lot of thought behind the little things,” said Desmond, who offered a few stories about her late friend.
Every Christmastime, Desmond puts up a tree lit with white lights in her office — the type with branches, but no greenery. One day, Colleen Watrous came in and handed her three red birds to liven up the holiday scene.
“They’re a little pop of color. She was so right. It needed a little something and she thought of my tree,” Desmond said.
“That was Colleen,” said Ona McLaughlin, current Middletown Garden Club president and fellow member, when she heard the bird story. Colleen Watrous was a very talented floral designer, she said.
Six years ago, Watrous gave Desmond a clipping from her garden — a single root from her white chrysanthemum plant. Desmond wasn’t certain it would transplant well.
The perennial, which Desmond has had to cut back every year since, has become a vibrant plant, which now takes up a 4by4foot space in her garden.
“She always made sure she had it planned out. She had her things she knew would come back year after year and then she’d have little odds and ends she chose because she liked them. They had different moods. She loved her garden,” Meghan Watrous said.
Watrous volunteered for many functions and mentored students at MacDonough Elementary and taught CCD at St. John Church, according to her obituary.
Former Mayor Maria Madsen Holzberg knew Watrous through their association with the garden club. Holzberg is past president of the organization.
“Colleen was an enthusiastic member of the garden club. She had a great appreciation for things that are beautiful and the environment. I had the opportunity to observe her relationship with her daughter, which was very special,” she said.
“She was very selfeffacing, basically a quiet person, almost shy, but in there, in the trenches, doing whatever had to be done,” McLaughlin said of
Watrous, who was on the board of the Wadsworth Mansion Friends of Long Hill Estate and served on the city’s Long Hill Estate Authority.
Watrous left the garden club when she was hired full time by the Police Department, because she didn’t have quite as much free time for both pursuits, McLaughlin said.
When Desmond’s son was born, she mentioned to Watrous she had to devise a way to make Christmas as authentic as possible — but her home lacked a chimney.
Watrous found a tiny metal key “you leave for Santa so he can get into your house on Christmas Eve. That’s the way you get around the whole chimney thing,” Desmond said. The holiday was “saved.”
One Christmas, Watrous came in with holiday headbands for the women in the department. They had antlers on them.
“She wanted all the ladies to wear them. I don’t think they actually did,” said Desmond, who appreciated the effort. She also remembers the time her coworker gave silk flower pins to all the females at work.
“That’s how sweet and kind she was. She was willing to be silly,” Desmond said.
The family is very grateful for the support they received from the community and friends as part of a GoFundMe drive to help with funeral expenses.