I’m incredibly sad to share that my Mum, Doreen Stevens, passed away peacefully early yesterday morning following a short illness. I was at her side.


Mum was born on 19 July 1933 at 15:45 at 73 Library Road in Parkstone. It was Grandad Watson’s house, and my grandparents bought it for just £365 in 1936.


Mum was their only daughter, the fifth of their children to be born, following on from her brothers, Donald, Dennis and then twins who sadly died within days of being born. Gerald, their sixth, and Mum’s youngest brother, was then born in 1936.


Mum was a happy child and started at Martin Road School in 1937.


1939 brought WWII. Her dad joined the Home Guard. She remembers watching from Sugar Knob Hill as a hotel at the Lansdowne in Bournemouth was bombed, and fire tore through it.


Food, clothing and furniture, along with almost everything else, were subject to rationing.


There was regular ‘Tip and Run’ air raids in 1942 and 3 where German fighters flew in low over the sea to avoid radar, suddenly crossing the coast to drop bombs and then quickly retreat. Meaning the aircraft would appear, strike and disappear before air defenses could fully react. This meant that the family slept initially under the stairs, and later when the children grew too big, in the public air raid shelter near the school. Sometimes when walking to the shelter, planes appeared dropping incendiary bombs, setting fire to the road.


On D-Day Mum and Uncle Gerald sat on the front doorsteps counting the planes as they flew overhead on their way to France.


Also in 1944, Mum passed the scholarship for Parkstone Grammar School. She thoroughly enjoyed school and was very good at maths and biology.


On Mum’s 14th birthday, a card arrived confirming an operation on her left eye at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. And following her experience of being a patient in a large London hospital she decided she wanted to become a nurse.


On 31st August 1950, aged just 17, Mum arrived at Lord Mayor Treloar Hospital in Alton, Hampshire, which was much easier to get to and from for weekends off as opposed to the alternative (the alternative had been the  Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry).


Mum passed her state exam in year one, but in year two she had a TB inoculation in her upper arm, contracted a TB in a gland in her neck and was in sickbay for 12 months following treatment and surgery. This gave Mum the time to write the script for the hospital Christmas pantomime. Mum was one of two naughty characters called Tib and Fib… unfortunately one night they ran out of greasepaint remover, and she went back onto the ward looking a bit stained the next morning! Matron was not impressed, one of her colleagues had to go up to London to get more greasepaint remover, quickly!


In year three, whilst working in the isolation ward, Mum contracted a serious bout of tonsilitis and had to have her tonsils out at Guy’s Hospital in London. In year four, irrespective of the setbacks with her health, she passed both her State Registration finals and gained her Orthopaedic Nursing Certificate as well.


Mum loved nursing children and went to work in a Children’s Home in Caterham, Surrey. The children were 3-5 years old, after a year she was urged to gain her Home Office Certificate to take charge of the home, but Mum realised that she missed theatre work. Especially patients that did not answer back!


Mum returned to nursing at an annexe to Poole General Hospital as a Staff Nurse on a Women’s surgical ward in Alderney. Interestingly she saved a patient’s life when they had a significant reactor a drug, simply because for every drug she gave, she was sure to know the antidote. The consultant thanked her profusely for acting so quickly,and without a doubt saving his patient. Mum loved women’s surgical, but orthopaedics were where her real interest laid.


She moved into the main hospital and back to orthopaedics. In 1956 my Dad was laid at her feel by two ambulance men following a serious motorcycle accident, with the question, ‘Where do you want him, luv?’ Dad was in hospital for 11 months, and just before he was discharged, the chap in the next bed asked her, ‘Would you go out with Charles if he asked you!?’ Mum haughtily replied, ‘I’m sure Charles is able to ask me himself if he’s that desperate to take me out!’


Fortunately, he did ask her out… but before long he had to go back to sea. They continued to write to each other, but there was a huge lag due to Dad being in port and delivery times. One day Mum bumped into one of Dad’s neighbours in Parkstone, who was also a previous patient. Mum accidentally called the lady ‘Mrs. Gallstones’ (which was the condition the lady had been on Women’s surgical ward for) … fortunately the lady saw the funny side and mentioned Dad had just arrived home that week. Rather brazenly, Mum popped round to his house that evening after work, and the rest as they say is history. They arranged to go out for an evening at the pictures. They later got engaged when Dad proposed on Constitution Hill overlooking Poole Harbour. They were meant to get married in July 1950, but Dad had promised to test a new propeller on a trip down to Australia and found out three weeks before the wedding that he had to go, so he went and instead they got married at St John’s Church in Parkstone in January 1960. My mother has the patience of a saint!


After getting married Dad came ashore as they wanted to start a family, they moved to Lytchett Minster, and he went to work as a civilian with the Royal Armoured Corps at Bovington Camp. They struggled to have a baby, so Mum and Dad fostered children for Dorset County Council. Many of them short term, prior to adoption or in emergency situations. The longest stay child was Jean and Mum really felt it when she left to return to her family. In all they fostered over 40 children, over about 7 years!


In 1968, I came along and Mum started a playgroup at the local methodist church hall. It started very small and only a couple of days a week. In 1970 Anne came along and the playgroup was running 5 days a week with 30 children a day. Later Mum started a toddler group as well, both caught the attention of Dorset County Council social workers as being a really supportive environment for children and a number of children in care were welcomed to both grow their social skills, and for them to enjoy playing with other children. Mum continued to run the playgroup, and Dad returned to sea in 1975. The playgroup, which is still going today, was bequeathed by Mum to the church when we moved to West Moors in 1979.


With that move, Mum went back into nursing. She was appointed as a Ward Sister at St Leonards Hospital, Ringwood. It specialised in all aspects of geriatric care. Mum’s ward was perhaps the most emotionally difficult as they were all being treated for the mental, emotional and behavioural disorders affecting elderly people. That said, because this was the early 1980s, many of her patients had fascinating histories relating to WWII.


About the time I went to college in 1984, Mum was invited to manage a nursing home in Bournemouth, Seacliff Court. Again, the residents had fascinating histories, and again Mum rapidly gained a reputation for running a tight ship and social services were always very keen to place people in her care, so the nursing home was always full. Something of a rarity in a town with so many nursing homes due to the aging population.


Dad retired from sea and Mum continued to work. For a while there he was a house husband. Dad cooked and even made break, while Mum worked.


By the early 1990s Mum retired and they travelled, having some really lovely holidays, they especially loved Portugal and Malta. Later, in 1995, Mum was to become a grandmother, as I was expecting Charlie. Even though I then lived in Shrewsbury, Mum travelled the 200 miles from Dorset to attend my scans (which fascinated her) and later Charlie’s birth. Mum bathed him before I even came round from the anaesthetic following a caesarian!


In early December 2000, I had to have a major operation and Charlie stayed with his Grandma and Grandad. To keep him amused, he ended up having all his Christmas gifts by 23 December, so Grandma went Christmas shopping again for more gifts for him.


In 2002 I married George, Mum and Dad, with Mum’s best friend from her nurse training in Alton, Auntie Diane and her husband Uncle Gordon, along with our other guests, gave us a great sendoff afterwards. Charlie thought he had the best deal, staying with Grandma and Grandad during our honeymoon.


Charlie had an incredibly close bond with both my Mum and Dad. He loved helping Mum in her greenhouse, even though he was a little overzealous with deadheading. One day when I was away on a course, she left him with my Dad, whilst she went shopping. She returned home to find them out in the garden and Charlie having a lovely time, aged about four, hammering six-inch nails into pieces of wood with a claw hammer! There were times when they drove her to distraction, but she never showed it, instead commenting, ‘…that’s an interesting thing to do, dear’.


Sadly, Dad passed away in 2005, devastating us all. Mum moved from the big family home in West Moors to a flat in the village centre, opposite the library. They had already decided to downsize, and the house was on the market when he passed, so it was an easy decision for Mum to go ahead and sell up. As a voracious reader, she felt it was the perfect location.


After Mum moved, we visited about every 5-6 weeks, plus Mum came up and stayed with us. Charlie introduced Mum to his Nintendo DS in 2006, and she immediately picked up on the Brain Training games and bought one for herself. She then went on to use a kindle rather than lugging books over the road from the library. Later he introduced her to the iPad in about 2011. Mum was fascinated that the iPad could do all that her desktop PC could do and immediately wanted one! Word games, sudoku, online shopping and banking she did it all, constantly really embracing new technology.


Eventually, it got to the point where she would stay with us for a couple of weeks over Christmas, Easter and in the summer. Plus, she came up and stayed to support me when George had major spinal surgery on his neck as a result of being injured in the line of duty as a police officer. Nothing was ever too much trouble; Mum was always there for us.


George later asked her if she would like to move in, but she declined. I think she thought he was joking. Six months later she asked if he was serious about it, and we confirmed we were. This time she accepted and moved in with us into Lauraceae House in 2013.


Mum totally integrated into our lives, enjoying spending time with our friends and welcoming members of our wider family from Dorset and Norfolk who visited. We all lived together really harmoniously, and the irony was not wasted on us that Mum was now living 2 miles from the Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital in Oswestry, the alternative hospital she could have trained at back in 1950.


In 2014, Mum travelled to Zaragoza in Spain with us as Charlie was a member of the team representing Great Britain in the European Championships for wheelchair basketball. She was the only Grannie on the trip and the whole team loved her. They adopted her as the team Grannie. She had such a lovely time and the icing on the cake was when Team GB won all their games and were crowned European Champions! She was so proud!


In 2016, George was seriously considering retirement, and I had the opportunity to work out of BT’s Glasgow Office. Charlie was living in Madrid, playing wheelchair basketball professionally.


We floated the idea of moving to the west of Scotland, buying a big house with a view of the Clyde, close to where Dad was born and brought up. Mum was surprisingly keen, she had visited with Dad and even knew where Dunoon was when we found the perfect house on the other side of the river! She’d been to Dunoon in 1960 with Dad when she was newly married!


Having sold the house and moved within the space of a couple of months, Mum embraced life in Innellan. She stayed at the Osborne Hotel in the village for a week whilst we got the house straight and ready for her as she was 84 by now. Peter and Eliot treated her like royalty, she had been briefed on what went on at the Village Hall and joined the Befrienders and had some great days out, and attending Inspiring Innellan fund raising events. She often went into Dunoon on the bus, as the bus stop was almost outside the house. She was very independent.


When in 2017, Charlie had a massive stroke, she was again, incredibly supportive to all of us. The COVID pandemic starting in 2020 meant we had to protect Mum, as she had had COPD since her late 50s, not that we’d ever let it stop her. We kept her safe and she never got COVID. However, she did have a couple of falls, one on the steps at the village hall as she was too busy admiring the daffodils, and another at home as she was walking and talking and not looking where she was going.


Unfortunately, George and Charlie were working in Glasgow and staying at Charlie’s apartment. BT advised staff we all had to work in the office 2-3 days a week. We looked into Carelines for her, so she could summon help, but the build of the house meant they would not work, and Mum decided to move to sheltered accommodation, as help would always be on hand. She moved into a lovely flat, overlooking the river with the Cloch Lighthouse on the opposite side. This was a significant landmark from Dad’s childhood, he used to regularly cycle to Largs, and when he got to the Cloch Lighthouse he meant they were nearly home!


We settled into a lovely routine. I had dinner with Mum every Monday, and we would watch all of the quizzes, which she loved on BBC2, Richard’s House of Games, Mastermind, Only Connect and University Challenge. We would answer the questions and put the world to rights. They were brilliant nights. Friday night we all had fish and chips, George, Charlie, and later Eve, if they were home, and me. We would also always watch Gardener’s World and check out what George’s ‘jobs for the weekend’ would be. In between any time one of us went into Dunoon we’d swing by and see Mum, always armed with cakes from one of the bakeries, and be welcomed with coke or coffee.


At the end of August 2025 Mum clearly wasn’t well and our GP arranged for her to go into our local (14 bed) hospital in Dunoon. She had multiple infections resulting in sepsis, and with the help of numerous courses of antibiotics, beat it. However, she was very weakened. The care she received in the hospital was second to none, and she was often found discussing nursing anecdotes with the staff.


As she improved the hospital team and social services agreed, a nursing home would be the best way ahead. Mum moved to Ashgrove Residential Home on 9 November; she quickly slotted into the routine of the home as she knew how it worked from managing a residential nursing home herself. She astounded staff by sitting up in bed doing word games and sudoku late into the nights, and a couple of Amazon boxes being delivered as well!


Sadly, on Friday, Mum took a turn for the worse, again our GP quickly got her the treatment she needed. But she declined over the weekend and peacefully passed away early on Monday morning with me at her side.


Mum lived a wonderful life of service to others, always making their lives better. Whether they were children with polio or TB, young children, women needing and having operations, surgical patients (especially one with a very badly broken leg) and latterly elderly people needing care. She was there for them as well as us. She gave so much of herself to others and felt real joy in doing it.


Mum will be badly missed by us all; our only comfort right now is that she has been reunited with Dad.


Rest in Peace Mum. We love you so much, thank you for EVERYTHING!

Mum requested a no fuss cremation, and that we celebrate her life on an agreed date in 2026.