Oh nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen (Sundquist, 494)
Transcript:
8 February 1946
Dear Nina:
I know that it is hard for you to stay in the hospital. It is not a pleasant atmosphere, but Dr. Wright and all the physicians agree that your only chance for getting better is the kind of treat ant you are getting at Montefiore. Dr. Harpuder thought that if you were living in New York near the hospital you might get some treatment but this, owing to the scarcity of nurses, would not be frequent or regular.
Wherever you live after leaving the hospital you will have to have a housekeeper and so e attention from a nurse. My apartment is not large enough for that and it is impossible for me to get a larger apartment nor could I afford the expense. Even if I could get another apartment of sufficient size you must remember that I am seventy-eight years old; that in the nature of things I shall be able to earn a living; for only a short time. Then both you and I are going to need a home and we could not afford two.
It is for this reason that I built and bought the house in Baltimore. I do not like Baltimore any more than you do but our home there is beautiful and convenient and after all it doesn’t make much difference where a person lives if he is comfortable and has sunlight, trees, grass and air. For an invalid like you, or an old man like myself past the days of work, it would be suicide to choose the crowd, dirt and noise of New York to the quiet of our home. And for Yolande and Du Bois the advantages are equally clear.
Eventually the burden of carrying on the family will fall on Yolande. I will have a small pension until I die, You will have only your share in the house and what Yolande can spare. There is, therefore, only one thing to be done: for you to return to Baltimore when you leave the hospital. In Baltimore as long as I can work and earn money I shall furnish and pay for a housekeeper so that you will not be alone and will not have meals to get or the house to run. Just as soon as it is possible I shall install in the house either a small elevator to run from the first to second floor or a ramp with a chair to take you up to your bed room. When I have to stop work, I shall come to Baltimore to live and help in the running of the house as well as I can.
Next May we will have been married fifty years. I have not always been able to make you happy but I have made you for the most part comfortable and I am especially sorry at this late date to have you stress among our friends my failure or inability to do exactly what you want. I think I have done my best. For the sake, therefore, of our family and especially of Du Bois, I hope you will read this letter over several times and come to the reasonable conclusion. I am sending a copy of this letter to Yolande.
Yours with love,
[no signature]
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Nina Du Bois, February 8, 1946. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b160-i431.