Fanny is born in “Myrtleville” and lives her married life in “Homewood,” two National Historic Sites. She strives to be good mother to her three school-age children and new baby and help on the farm, but she is battling tuberculosis. She undergoes blistering and cupping, has help from her husband’s sister and her sisters and continues to grow thinner and weaker. The diary ends in 1880 and she dies that December at the age of thirty-eight.

Fanny's diary is found written inside this account book of blacksmith Andrew Hurd. Courtesy of Upper Canada Village Archive.

Homewood in winter. Courtesy of Ontario Heritage Trust.