Obituary of Shirley Cairme-Garcia

Shirley Cairme-Garcia, M.D., 87, died of cancer on August 22, 2025, at her home in Todt Hill, surrounded by family. In January, she was diagnosed with Stage IV, which likely started out in the breast before moving to the lungs. She powered through three rounds of chemo and multiple appointments to drain fluid from the left, then both lungs. Shirley was born on April 19, 1938, in Manila, Philippines, the third child of Enrique Cadua Cairme Sr. and Rosario Romero Cairme. Always good with numbers, Shirley thought of becoming an accountant, but her mother advised her to pursue medicine instead. She studied at Manila Central University, graduating in 1962. A year later, she married Lamberto S. Garcia. In order to pursue her dream to become a psychiatrist, she ventured alone to the United States as a rotating intern in Dayton, Ohio, early in their marriage under the Exchange Visitor's program. Her husband, a customs examiner, preferred to remain in the Philippines. She later returned home, and for the next few years, worked as a part-time school physician, and then opened a private medical practice and a drugstore, Shirbert's. In 1971, with political unrest in the Philippines, Shirley and her husband decided to leave. They traveled to Michigan for her residency training in psychiatry, with their three boys---ages five, three, and one—along with her mother. At the time, Shirley didn't know she was pregnant with their fourth child. Wanting more family support, they left Michigan after only a few months, to be closer to her sister, Norma, in New York. Shirley continued her residency training at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn and Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan until 1975. She went on to work at South Beach Psychiatric Center, Woodhull Medical Center, Lutheran Medical Center and Kingsboro Psychiatric Center. She also had several private practices in Brooklyn and her home in Staten Island. Shirley was a devout Catholic who was a member of St. Teresa's Legion of Mary for several years. In her eighties, she penned a book, Our Way to Heaven, and was proud the day it was made available on Amazon. She will always be remembered for her devotion to the church and teaching her family the importance of religion. In her later years, she prayed upwards of six hours a day, her family confident they will ALL make it to Heaven because of her powerful prayers. She was also extremely generous in her donations to countless Catholic charities. Like many who emigrated to the United States, she knew education was the key to success. She worked tirelessly—at one time holding down two jobs—to pay for her children's colleges. And yet she was modest about her efforts, saying it was only through God that she was able to work hard, persevere (even after being assaulted in 1993 by a patient), and ensure all her children were able to pursue their chosen professions. Shirley was a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She took charge of caring for Bert, giving him supplements that she researched to keep his body and mind in good health, as she had done for herself. In her later years, she didn't pass up a chance to remind people that she raised her grandson, Colin. When Shirley was in the hospital recently, she apologized profusely to her granddaughter, Alyana, when she visited and quickly reached into her pocketbook to give a late birthday gift. Feisty in nature, Shirley was not one to back down—even when it came to the IRS. She always did the taxes on her own via handwritten sheets of paper, adamantly refusing to use tax software even when they owned multiple properties and a laundromat. A few years ago, she received an IRS letter claiming she owed money, so she fought hard, writing numerous letters that showed her computation and last month, after much back-and-forth, this would-be accountant triumphantly received a refund of $18,926.60. Shirley is survived by Bert, her husband of 62 years, their four children, Bon (wife, Jennifer), Clemence, Don and Erica (husband, Ray) and 8 grandchildren. Also grieving are her siblings: Enrique Cairme Jr. (Staten Island), Norma Luis (San Antonio) and Linda Pegram (San Antonio) along with numerous nieces and nephews.