Dulcie Bishop Stewart Publishes Memoir at 90
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MERIDIANVILLE, AL, UNITED STATES, November 2, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- Stewart's narrative begins in 1936, the year she was born in Belmont, Portland, to a farmer and a seamstress. At the age of 20, she embarked on a new chapter of her life, sailing from Kingston to Southampton to begin nurse training at Ramsgate General Hospital in Kent. She qualified as a State Registered Nurse in 1959 and as a State Certified Midwife in Edinburgh in 1961. Her career took her to various hospitals, including St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London and operating rooms in Manchester and Middlesex.
In 1969, Stewart was recruited during a U.S. nursing shortage and arrived in New York aboard the QE2 on its maiden voyage. She joined the obstetric unit at Albany Medical Center and later moved to the Dorn VA Medical Center in Columbia, South Carolina, where she became head nurse of a nursing home care unit. She also served four years in the U.S. Navy Reserve before retiring from the VA in December 2000.
The memoir, published by The Write Publishers, follows Stewart's life from her early days in Jamaica to her professional experiences in Britain and the U.S. It includes a detailed account of village life in 1940s Portland, such as the shortcut to Seaside Elementary School through neighbors' fruit yards and the Happy Grove church bell that told the whole district the time. The book also recounts her experiences as a student midwife in Edinburgh and the 1957 Asian flu outbreak that put her in hospital in Kent.
Stewart wrote the book because of a remark she could not forget. Many of the men on her ward had served in wars, and some had lost limbs. Stewart reported the comment to the hospital administrator that same day, and the VA's head office in Washington, D.C., sent a representative to Albany to look into it. She writes that she never discussed her background at work again.
Now retired, Stewart volunteers at health clinics, keeps a vegetable garden, and is an active member of her church. She still does the tatting and crochet she learned as a schoolgirl. More information is available at https://dulciebishopstewart.com/