Maker: Mary Culver

Panel number: 345

Petition sheet number: 413

Person honouring: E. A. [Elizabeth Ann] Patching

Relationship to maker: Great-aunt

Elizabeth Ann Bovey was born in April 1866 in Nelson. She was the third child of Elizabeth Stud and John Bovey.

In 1887, she married Peter Henry Patching in Wellington; they had three girls. Peter was a brickmaker, and only 34 when he died in 1891.

Elizabeth was left to bring up three little girls by herself. It is thought that Elizabeth ran a boarding house and then married Thomas Driver. Thomas died in Levin in 1912, and Elizabeth married for a third time to John Daniels in 1916.

Elizabeth passed away in 1920 due to cancer and was buried in the Mako Mako Road cemetery in Levin.

Panel materials: In the spirit of recycling, I chose fabric with a stenciled red rose I had completed decades ago – after adding the photos and embroidery, I discovered that in Tennessee supporters of women’s right to vote wore yellow roses and those against wore red – so I changed the colour of the rose. The tatted pieces represent Elizabeth’s three marriages and three daughters, and the koru the new opportunities open to women since gaining the vote – albeit slow at times! The tatted pieces come from my husband’s grandmother. The white knots represent camellia buds, the crosses the other 46 signatories on the same page. Vintage lace is added around the edge of the panel.