She was a renowned dressmaker in the Western Province. Later in Pretoria she was employed by the well-known firm of T.W Beckett.

In 1879/80 she and her children left Durbanville and headed for Kroonstad where her brother-in-law George Pike MOLLETT then lived. But her relatives, the van der Spuy’s of Boshof, regarded as rather wealthy people for those days, influenced her to remain in Boshof where her eldest daughter, a qualified teacher, was promised a teaching post.

She was seriously injured when she was thrown from a horse-drawn spider after the animal had bolted, and lost the free use of one of her legs.