Sabina Mugabe was born on 14 October 1934 at the Kutama Roman Catholic Mission, which was run by Jesuits of the Rome-based Marist Order, in the Zvimba District 50 miles northwest of Harare, to a Malawian-born father, Gabriel Matibili and a Shona mother, Bona.
Prior to leaving Rhodesia she had been sheltered by the Silveira House Catholic seminary, on the outskirts of Harare, while her brother Robert was leading ZANU guerrillas fighting former Rhodesian leader Ian Smith's forces from bases in Mozambique.
Earlier, in November 2000 Sabina Mugabe had informed Mr Ford that she wanted his farmstead "so she could move in".
[3] That Mr Ford's old Jack Russell, Squeak, refused to leave his body added a poignancy to the story that saw the case make international headlines.
According to then President Mugabe, he visited her prior to her death and was told that one-third of her brain had been damaged by the stroke.