[billhilly]

It seems that we are probably around the same age. Your great aunt would have been fun to swing and shell peas with. My dear aunt Nell kept me happy through all of my visits with her, no matter what. From my earliest memories until her death she was a rock in my life.

[AnAmericanMother]

My maternal grandmother's name was Nell, also.

Great aunt Quenelle was named after my gg grandmother, whose real name was Martha Jane but everybody called her "Queen". She was a remarkable and redoubtable person, I never met her but the family was full of stories about her. Great aunt Quenelle was also delightful - she kept us children in raptures with stories about her grandfathers who fought in the War, and real ghost stories (she had a secretary/bookcase that was haunted by the ghost of her grandfather, and she was visited by the ghost of Queen after her death) and homemade cookies.

Southern ladies are unique, no doubt about it.