Transcribers beware – this is not for the faint of heart! But if you like a dramatic story, you will find this diary grips your imagination. Hannah once mingled with the elite and had servants and slaves but by the 1840s, she is reduced to poverty. She is caring for her daughter and nine penniless grandchildren who reside in Willowbank, now a designated heritage site. In this declining mansion home, she scrubs, mends and cooks. “Society” people sometimes grace her pages and her cookbook survives.