West Albany - Lillian Mae Colello (nee Hoffman), age 96, passed away on January 26, 2026 after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.  Lillian (“Doie”) was married to the love of her life, Joseph S. Colello for 77 years, until he passed away October 10, 2025.  Doie and Joe were sweethearts since their teens and knew each other their entire lives.  She was born in her beloved West Albany, and her fondest memories were of her time growing up with her (very large) Scaringe family and good friends on Exchange Street, and summers on the farm with her Hoffman family in Pittsfield, MA.  She attended West Albany Elementary School and Vincentian Institute.  After high school she worked for the telephone company, babysat in the home, and worked for Golden Krust Bakery.

Lillian and Joe raised four children on Wilkins Avenue in West Albany. Joseph, Vicki (Jerry Backus), Maryteresa, and Amy Murphy; she was the best “Nano” to six grandsons, Jason (Emily), Benjamin (Katherine) and Evan (Mary Beth) Mastaitis; John (Joan) Kennedy; Ryan (Sheryl) and Kyle (Kristen) Murphy.  She was the proud great-grandmother of nine “greats”:  Kieara (Samuel), Lillian, Juliet, Cleo, Dexter, Eleanor and Greta Mastaitis, Amelia Mae Murphy and Jack Joseph Kennedy.  She shared her birthday month of May with extended family members Kayla Backus (Mike Anderson) and Nicholas Milos.

Lillian suffered from dementia for the last 16 years of her life but loved visits from family and could remember the ‘old times’ quite well.  Before this illness limited her, she loved to cook and bake for everyone, host card parties (disguised as ‘Novenas’), take trips with the seniors, go to Wildwood Crest with the entire family, play the slots at Racino or Atlantic City, make wonderful trays of Christmas cookies, and help her family whenever she could.  In later years, you would often see her and Joe sitting in their driveway of the house they loved on Sand Creek Road, holding hands.  We hope Mom is reunited with her mother and sisters and her fun-loving aunts and uncles (she missed and asked for her mother almost every day), and that they are all enjoying some good Italian food and wine with one of Mom’s home-made desserts.

Lillian was predeceased by her parents, Teresa (Scaringe) Curione and Albert Hoffman, stepfather Joseph Curione, her sisters Eileen Booth Schleiger and Betty Jean Hoffman, and half-brother Gerald Hoffman.  In addition to her children and their families, Lillian is survived by her half-siblings Patricia (George) Goss and Al (Maralyn) Hoffman, sister-in-law Mary Anne Moreau, and many dear cousins, nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider donating to the Regional Food Bank (https://regionalfoodbank.net), the Alzheimer’s Association (https://alzfdn.org/donate) or Community Hospice Services (https://www.communityhospice.org)

We would like to thank the aides, nurses, doctors and staff of Shaker Place Nursing Home for their support and care of Mom, her hospice nurses and staff, and also friend and helper Michelle Martino, who gave us much-needed support over the past few years.

Services will be February 16, 2026 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Our Light Church, 1 Maria Drive, Loudonville, NY. Lillian will be laid to rest at Our Lady of Angels cemetery next to Joe and her mother.