THE SIDER ROAD STORY
By Jocelyn Greenky Underwood, CEO
The Sider family hailed from Germany and settled in Stevensville, Canada four generations ago. Following Mennonite tradition, typically, after the seventh grade, the men worked in the fields and women worked either as housemaids or were homemakers.
In 1944, my grandmother hired Emma Sider as a housekeeper. When my mother married and had her first child, Emma moved in with my parents in Buffalo, NY. She remained with our family for close to 40 years, sharing her grace, religion, harmonica playing, and love of flowers and cooking. I will always consider her another mother.
Emma and four of her siblings lived together in the farmhouse on Sider Road. Much of my childhood was spent at the 250-acre homestead we called The Farm. I spent countless weekends, summers, and holidays roaming the tall grass, wheat fields, and animal stalls. I learned to milk cows, tend to chickens, ducks and pigs, drive a tractor, shoot a gun, bail hay, pickling, planting and "dressing" a chicken.
The five-bedroom, two-story house was heated with a single wood stove and in the deep of cold winters, the hand-sewn family quilts provided all the warmth one needed.
The farmhouse still stands.
Although I'm not Mennonite, I learned lessons at The Farm that would stand me in good stead for the rest of my life. Key among them were a deep appreciation of others, grace, compassion and sound decision-making based on core values.