Maker: Lisa Cunningham

Panel number: 72

Petition Sheet Number: 70

Person honouring: Cecilia Lemon

Relationship to makers: I was given Cecilia Lemon randomly, but her family home at the time of signing the petition was a 5 minute bike ride from my family home in Caversham, Dunedin.

Cecilia was born on 3 June 1857 in Bellerive, Tasmania. She married Charles Lefos Lemon, a painter, in 1884 in New Zealand. They lived in South Dunedin and had five children, Paul Bishop, Charles Percy, William Turnbull, May Margaret, and Louisa Elizabeth. 

Cecilia Mary Lemon (nee Turnbull) suffered from extreme indigestion. Her biggest claim to fame was for an advertisement for Clement Tonic, which ran in at least 14 Otago newspapers from 1903 to 1912. It details the extreme indigestion she suffered until she started taking the tonic. 

She and Charles lived briefly in Invercargill and Wellington before returning to Dunedin, where he died in 1926. She returned to Wellington and lived with her son, Charles, and daughter May Adams until her death in 1946, aged 90.

Panel materials: Vintage table cloth like the ones my grandmother would use for special dinners, a wool scarf from my Nana Lile’s collection, thread from my grandmother Audrey’s old embroidery box, crochet thread from my Nana as well as crocheted doilies made by my Nana and great-grandmother. I purchased some fabric printing paper from Cartridge world for some of the details.