The first time midwife Susan Doak heard she was receiving an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours list was a call from Governor Jane Owen just over a week ago.
“It’s a bit overwhelming, to be honest,” she told the Compass over the weekend. “I didn’t have a clue.”
The governor announced on Friday that Doak would be made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to midwifery in the Cayman Islands.
She couldn’t tell anyone about the honour until the official list was formally released on Friday night, UK time.
“It was all top secret,” she said.
‘Nurse Sue’, as she is known to many, believes she was nominated by a former colleague, Doug Cronie, with whom she used to work at the Health Services Authority.
“I’m just learning about how all this works,” she said, “but I understand you also need to have many letters of support verifying you once you’ve been nominated.”
Doak, 67, retired from the HSA last month, after 45 years of service.
Speaking to the Compass over the phone on Sunday from the Isle of Arran in Scotland, where she is visiting her sister, she said she remains in shock. “It’s all a bit surreal,” she added.
When Doak arrived in Cayman on 5 Nov. 1979 at the age of 22, and began working at the hospital, she thought she would stay for a year or so and move on.
But like so many who arrive in Cayman, a year turned into two, into a decade, into several decades, and it has become her home.
“My kids were born there, and my grandchildren,” she said.
‘Low key’
“I am not somebody to do fuss. I’m very low key,” Doak says.
But now she will be made a fuss of, when she receives her MBE from King Charles III at Buckingham Palace next year.
Doak was also the centre of attention when she retired in May from the HSA, which threw a retirement party for her.
During her four and a half decades at the Cayman Islands Hospital’s maternity unit, she delivered 1,273 babies.
“I was involved in the births of more, through C-section, for example, as I was the midwife in those, but my signature is on 1,273.”
She often runs into people she delivered as babies, she says. “Now, they say, ‘You delivered me and you delivered my daughter’s baby”.
“It was a very special job to have,” she said. “I am very privileged to have had that job.”
Lizzette Yearwood, chief executive officer of the HSA, told the Compass Doak was “extremely deserving of this prestigious award”.
“She has safely delivered three generations of Caymanians during her 45 years at HSA,” she said.
She added, “Her humble, unassuming personality, dedication and pride in her work make her an inspiration for others in healthcare.”
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