Maker: Marion Manson

Panel number: 380

Petition sheet number: 460

Person honouring: Jessie Speedy

Relationship to maker: Great-grandfather’s cousin. The only signatory with same surname as my maiden name.

Jessie, the fourth child of 15, was born in 1868 at the family station, Burnview, Herbertville (on the coast, east of Dannevirke).

Her panel highlights familial connections – her twin brothers’ names feature around the edge of the panel, and as she married an Irishman, John Alexander Riddell (in 1897), these details are stitched on an Irish linen runner.

Jessie had no children; the electoral rolls state her occupation as ‘domestic duties’.

In 1919, aged 51, she died of ovarian cancer. Here we are 100 years later and women are still dying of it. She is buried in the picturesque family cemetery at Burnview, along with her parents and other family members. The words ‘Peace Perfect Peace’ (stitched on my panel) are on the side of her gravestone.

Panel materials: Found Irish linen table runner, photos printed on cotton.