- Date Of Birth: November 21, 1921
- Date Of Death: April 27, 2020
- State: Connecticut
“Mom”; “Mamma”; “Auntie Monica”; “Grandma” was born in the parish of St. Ann in Jamaica to Scottish and Jamaican parents, David and Emily Stewart on November 21, 1921, the 3rd child with siblings Beatrice and Icilda Stewart. She lost her parents at a young age and was brought up by a family member who migrated to Cuba and took her with her, there she learned to speak Spanish fluently which became an asset in her job when she returned to live in Jamaica, especially when dealing with foreigners who came in to do business. She was trained in Shorthand which was a fast method of writing, using symbols to represent letters, words, or phrases, taught as a skill then.
She became the mother of four children, John, Daniel, Joshua and Maria who she brought up, for the most part, on her own, as a single working parent, ensuring that they had a good education. Maria recalls being given extra lunch money by Mom, “just in case anything happened on the road and she needed some money.” Once Maria had lost her money for her school books on the public transportation and was in trepidation when the school had to call her mother to report the loss. Although we grew up in an inner-city with not much money, our mother, in fine style, took her time and put some money together. Maria still had her books ahead of many in the class. She made countless sacrifices to ensure that we got a proper education and our needs were met. At the time of death she had nine grand-children plus adopted grand-children and several great-grand-children who she personally took care of and great-great-grand-children, all residing in Jamaica and the USA.
Her last job was assisting a pharmacist at Myrie’s Drug Store, from which she retired in 1980. She then migrated to the USA in 1989 to join her son, Daniel, who had gone ahead to prepare a way to help his mother while ensuring that as she waited in Jamaica, she lived in a comfortable home.
