Rilla Blythe

{{Infobox_character
 * image = File:rilla_blythe_ingleside.jpg|250px
 * birth date and death = July 1899
 * also known as = Rilla
 * gender = Female
 * hair colour = Red
 * eye colour = Hazel
 * skin colour = Light
 * family members =*Gilbert Blythe (father)
 * Anne Blythe (mother)
 * Kenneth Ford {husband)
 * Joyce Blythe (sister) (dec.)
 * James Blythe (brother)
 * Anne Blythe (twin sister)
 * Diana Blythe (twin sister)
 * Shirley Blythe (brother)
 * Rilla Blythe (sister)
 * Faith Meredith (sister-in-law)
 * Jerry Meredith (brother-in-law)
 * affliation = Blythe family|imagewidth = 286}}Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe was the daughter of Gilbert and Anne Blythe, and the younger sister of Joyce (dec.), Jem, Walter, Nan, Di, and Shirley Blythe.

Birth
Bertha Marilla has two nicknames: Rilla, the more common one, and Roly-Poly baby. She is the only child we see being born at Ingleside, and the only girl to have her birth described, and the second child in all to have their birth described. She is born and Walter is scared because he thinks that instead of having a baby, Anne is going to die. However, she is the sweetest baby, weighs 8 pounds at birth, and has unusually long eyelashes, according to Gilbert, Anne and Susan.

Early life
Rilla was described as roly-poly during her childhood, and she had a very decided lisp. Rilla had gotten into her share of adventures, such as throwing one of Susan's silver-and-white cakes into the creek. This was for worry that she was doing something disgraceful to be carrying that cake to the church. Her mother was understandable as always later on, and assured Rilla that neither she nor her father nor Susan would ever ask Rilla to do anything disgraceful. In Rainbow Valley, she was chased around the Glen village by Mary Vance with a dried codfish, since Rilla was being rather vain and insufferable at the time.

World War One
Rilla is fifteen years old by the time the rest of her siblings are starting their own lives away from Ingleside. Rilla did not have any ambition nor did she want to have any. She said there had to be at least one dunce in every family, and she was perfectly comfortable with the idea, being young, romantic, and carefree. This changes forever with the outbreak of World War One, and Jem enlisting to go and fight overseas, as well as the Meredith boys and eventually Walter and Shirley. Rilla is devastated when Walter is killed in the war, but soon continues bravely on with life. Rilla adopts a war-baby, does her share of work with the Red Cross, and as it turns out, everything that's happened has made a woman out of Rilla. She finds Kenneth Ford waiting at the door for her after the war has ended.

Etymology
Rilla was named after her maternal grandmother, Bertha Shirley, and her adopted maternal grandmother, Marilla Cuthbert.

Appearances

 * Anne of Ingleside (first appearance)
 * Rainbow Valley
 * Rilla of Ingleside