Emma Maria Sills

Writing about His grandmother, Peter Ford talks about the impact she had on his brother Michael & himself ;:
All our holidays were spent with our grandmother on the farm Carlton in the Dordrecht district. Our Gran ,Emma Sills was a wonderful lady, hard working, up at 5am every day with fresh bread in the oven. There were always fresh eats for tea, delicious meals and she was really very good & kind to us young boys. Her hospitality, cooking and enjoyment at having visitors & family was known far & wide The only complaint I ever heard from her was that there were not enough hours in the day. Her evenings were spent preparing the kitchen for the next day & sitting in front of the fire doing needlework, tapestry & crocheting until the 9 o'clock news & then to bed. Christmases were always a very special time. The family with all the uncles, aunts and cousins, there would be up to 30 sitting down to only the best, enjoying sucking pig, turkey & legs of lamb. All this was enjoyed after attending church in the morning, giving hampers to the poor & putting flowers on all the family graves. Gran eventually retired & came to live with us Fords, after a self contained flat was built onto our house in Queenstown. It was during this time, after I left school & while staying at home, that we built up a very special relationship. I relished all the stories & Boer war episodes she had experienced. Up until her death, she was still churning out over 50 doilies for milk covers a week for the Hospital. These were essential to keep flies off milk or other foods. At 84 years of age , she had a fall, landed in hospital & only 3 days later she passed away. I was especially grateful that she did not suffer or lose her dignity, she had such a lovely disposition. [ Past & Present by Peter Ford December 2014]

Aunt Emma Sills was a very keen gardener & so was Uncle Hal. Their garden had neatly trimmed hedges, which provided a wind-break for shrubs & flowers. Uncle Hal clipped these hedges based on his garden at home in Lincolnshire, England. His topiary included several peacocks & several urns, The garden was divided into sections for herbs, for vegetables, & there were rows of fruit trees. In its time, it was one of the finest gardens in the Dordrecht district. On the veranda, there were comfortable wickerwork chairs & a few beautiful Thonet bentwood rocking chairs. One end of the stoep or veranda was enclosed with glass windows.[ E R Harrison : Stories from Clarksdale]