Nina Adelaide

Nina Adelaide Weeks

She was the next oldest girl above my grandmother. There were three older sisters above her. That put her squarely in the middle of all those children, the eight who lived to see adulthood.

The next oldest girl above her was Winnie, who wasn't normal the way the rest of the Weeks were. She was a bit simple-minded, I've been told. Hard to say what that means in today's terms.

What that meant for Nina, most likely, was that she had to fight to hold her own with the two oldest girls.

I know for a fact that the two oldest girls, Rose and Myrtle, could dish it out pretty good. And the loneliness of that middle girl position meant that Nina had to fight for every square inch of territory.

That is mostly guesswork on my part, of course. I've been thinking about her lately in terms of family order.

This photo is what started me thinking:

Girls from l-r: Nina, Myrtle, Winnie, Rose, Eva.

Nina appears to be the smallest in size of all the girls, even though she's not the youngest. Rose, second from the right, had the most "power" of all the girls. Since I know Myrtle and Nina fought a lot as grown-ups, I was surprised to see them next to each other in this photo.

When you look at the following photo, showing them all in front of the farmhouse many years earlier, can you resist wondering about how all those girls got along? Not well from the stories I've heard.


Girls in front: Nina, Eva in wagon, Winnie
Girls in back: Rose and Myrtle

You can see the two oldest girls in the back are too old for playing. And of the three younger girls, Winnie is the oldest. Nina and Eva the youngest.

But Eva and Irving (pulling the wagon) were true best friends. They ran away from the older girls and hid in the orchard or the fields until the searching and calling ceased, then went on their merry way to play the day away. I know Nina and Winnie were grouped with the older girls on those days.

That left Nina to do chores with/for the older girls and resent Eva for leaving her to play with Irving.



Now, I know for a fact that my grandmother, Eva, was the sweetest of them all. Even so, in my childhood, I heard many squabbles between Eva and Nina but also between Nina and Myrtle.

My father tells how he and his sister, Louise, would make bets as to how long it would take them to start arguing as soon as Myrtle entered the farm kitchen for a visit with Nina. Not very long was Dad's recollection.


Nina, Myrtle, and Eva

• I know Aunt Nina was my favorite of all of them, next to my grandmother, Eva.
• I know Aunt Nina had a sharp tongue and fussy expectations.
• I also know I loved Aunt Nina even so because the other side of her was magical. Full of wonder: stories, camp songs, outings and activities for grandnieces.

If I was careful to follow her rules and not get her dander up, she was the adult in my life who had more time for me than any other. She would play games for hours, take us on trips around the county, read or tell stories till darkness fell...


Laura, Nina, Marcia

She gave of her TIME and ATTENTION to my sister and I like no one else did.

So even though she was the middle child, sisterless in a sea of sisters, she grew up to be the one with the most dynamism, the most ambition, the most sparkle in her personality.

She was the one kids flocked around--all my cousins have great memories of her--my sister and I were devoted to her.

And I would say, without a doubt, we still are.