By Lauren FitzPatrick
Staff writer
Who doesn’t wish the world were a better place?
But Sheila Doherty-McDonald set out to make it happen.
She paired her brains with a compassionate heart and used her skills to instill pride in young writers, capture important school moments on film and become her neighborhood’s go-to person for sick and hurt kids.
A psychology degree led to an interest in education. Then a master’s in education led to nursing school and two more degrees.
“She lived the way people should live their lives,” her sister, Megan Doherty, said. “She got involved as stay-at-home moms do. You go to where your strengths are.”
Ms. Doherty-McDonald died Sept. 27 of inflammatory breast cancer. She was 45.
With a nursing degree under her belt, she knew the doctor’s diagnosis a year ago was serious.
“She said, “If this is what I have, this is quick and dirty,’” Doherty said.
St. Barnabas School in Chicago’s Beverly community became her special project, and she joined the school board, volunteered in the computer lab and library, taught a CCD class and revived the school paper.
“She was not a teacher at St. Barnabas, but that’s how she could affect some change,” Doherty said of the renewal of the paper, “Red and White Review.” She had never done anything like that before.”
Ms. Doherty-McDonald seemed to adopt, “I’ve never done that before,” as a personal mantra, as she threw herself into her family, her church and her community for as long as she could.
Born Aug. 1, 1961, Sheila Doherty was the second of four children raised in a bustling South Side home in Christ the King parish by an accountant and a stay-at-home mom. She shared a sweet girlie bedroom over the garage with a sister six years her junior.
“There was the typical drawing the line down the carpet to keep her on her side,” Megan Doherty said. “Then my parents got her a phone because she was constantly on the phone line. She would bribe me with candy when she was chatting with her boyfriend until midnight.”
The girls’ relationship was so close it was sealed in blood when an aunt pierced the ears of the three sisters and their mother.
Ms. Doherty set off for the University of Michigan where she studied psychology — and caught the eye of fellow student Jim McDonald, who, as the story goes, wheedled her phone number from a mutual friend. After the pair married in 1985, they set off for the East Coast for a while.
Ms. Doherty-McDonald would earn three more degrees, a bachelor’s in nursing and two master’s degrees in early childhood education and in nursing.
Her husband teased her at about her last graduation party truly being her last. On a cake that looked like an alphabet soup of letters, he had listed NMD — “No more degrees.”
But it all led to nursing for the compassionate woman.
“Even through her illness, when people were taking care of her, she was the first one … letting people know, I’m thinking about you, and your pain and your happiness,” her sister said.
Ms. Doherty-McDonald became the neighborhood’s de facto nurse but never had a chance to earn a paycheck in a hospital.
“She was a stay-at-home mom, with the intention of last year going back to work, then she got ill,” Doherty said.
Once her family moved back to Beverly, Ms. Doherty-McDonald threw herself into St. Barnabas.
Her reading led her to form a book club and recommend books for the students. An interest in photography turned her into the unofficial St. Barnabas sports photographer and introduced her to countless parents and their children.
“She was constantly in motion,” Doherty said. “She wasn’t one to sit on the beach, she was one to walk on the beach. She tried to pack it all in. Maybe she knew she didn’t have all the time in the world.”
Besides her younger sister, Ms. Doherty-McDonald is survived by her husband,; her mother, Sandie Doherty; children Maxwell, Duke and Catherine; another sister, Mimi Doherty; a brother, Howard Doherty; and many nieces, nephews and friends.
Arrangements were by Brady-Gill Funeral Home, (708) 636-5500.
Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5964.
