Nina Helms Strauss88, a longtime resident of Thetford Hill, passed away peacefully on February 21st at Valley Terrace Assisted Living Facility in Wilder, Vermont.

Nina was born in 1927 in Hanover, NH to Irina Khrabroff and Feodor Cekich. Irina had first come to Thetford from Russia in 1915 to attend Camp Hanoum (now Camp Farnsworth). Nina's grandparents eventually followed their daughter, purchasing a small house on Thetford Hill after a dramatic escape through Siberia, in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution.

Although Nina grew up in New York City, she spent all her childhood summers with her grandparents in Thetford. Nina's godmother, the distinguished Clara Sipprell, wrote of Nina "a child so natural, so gifted, so full of life, like a young tree sunned on all sides."

Following her high school graduation, Nina studied nursing, eventually receiving her B.S. degree in nursing education from Duke University in 1952, while 5 months pregnant with her first child. Upon completion of her husband's medical residency in 1957, the family moved to Arizona, where she raised her four children.

With her children grown and in a second marriage, Nina spent a number of years living, working, and traveling throughout the West, including several years living on a sailboat in British Columbia. But the siren song of Thetford called, and in 1983 she began to spend all but the winter months at the house her parent's had built in 1942.

Nina's greatest joys were to spend her summers on Thetford Hill with her dear friends, then drive across the country to Arizona, where she would volunteer for many hours as an expert "weeder" of books at the Sedona Library. Her final solo drive across the country occurred just last April at the age of 87, lugging her oxygen tank from car to hotel room at the end of a long day of driving.

Nina loved the simple life and was endlessly entertained with reading a wide variety of books. She listened to Vermont Public Radio, seeing no need to own a TV or computer. She was fulfilled by playing bridge with friends, a spirited game of whiz bang with her children and grandchildren, and perpetual games of spite and malice with her favorite child. She also traveled extensively in her later years including trips to Russia, South America, India, Morocco, and many to Africa.

Nina is survived by her children Kathy, Ted, and Robert Helms, eight grandchildren and four great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her son Peter, and former husbands William K. Helms, MD and Douglas Strauss.

If you care to make a donation in Nina's honor, please do so to the Thetford Volunteer Fire Department or the Latham Library in Thetford. Services will be private.

Arrangements were under the direction of the Rand-Wilson Funeral Home of Hanover, NH.