Parents will do anything to protect or comfort their children, but Ellen Ford took her duty as a mother to the extreme, caring for her daughter long after her death.
When Florence Irene Ford died aged just 10 from yellow fever in 1871, her mother refused to give up on her maternal duties.
Ellen ensured that her daughter would never have to face a storm alone, even in death.
Florence had been petrified of storms in her short life and this led to her doting mother having a window built into the head of the coffin, as well as a narrow stairway leading down to the level of the window.
Ellen also ensured that hinged metal trapdoors were installed so that they could be shut during storms.
This meant that Ellen was protected from the wind and rain while she sat by her daughter’s coffin, reading or singing to her until the storm had passed.
While Ellen may have long since passed herself, the doors can still be opened today, meaning visitors to Natchez City Cemetery in Adams County, Mississippi can comfort Florence in the event of a storm.
The only real change to the grave came in the mid-1950s, when a concrete wall was erected at the bottom of the stairway covering the coffin’s glass window to prevent vandalism.
The grave’s headstone can still clearly be made out all these years later, with the epitaph reading: “As bright and affectionate a Daughter as ever God with His Image blest.”
