Thursday Doors – Strawbridge House

The Strawbridge-Shepherd House is situated on the southern edge of the University of Illinois -Springfield. Originally built in 1845, the house was listed on the National Park Service  National Register of Historic Places in 2015.

This first picture shows the original 1840’s Greek Revival building. A Queen Anne styled addition was added to the rear of the house around 1865. More about the house HERE …

This next photo shows a couple tents of the 114th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry as viewed from inside the house during Old Settler Days on the grounds of the Strawbridge-Shepherd House.

I need to point out that the only soldier without stripes on his sleeves is visible to the right. I am usually very well supervised!! (…and closely watched!)

Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Visit Norm 2.0 for more doors and details.

 

Spc3 – Nick Hughes

Dad’s funeral visitation/services/mass culminated with his graveside ceremony at the Rock Island Arsenal and National Cemetery . He is now buried next to Mom, and as both are Military Vets, they each have their own grave marker. Due to security procedures, we were not able to visit Mom’s grave. The Army needs advance notice of our visit, and we have to provide authorized ID (ie. Passport…). We’ll go back for a visit after Dad’s marker is set.

Rest In Peace, Dad and Mom. And thank you for your service!

One final spit-polishing…

Last Thursday, November 3, 2016, my father, Nick G. Hughes, passed away suddenly following a brief illness. Hospital attendants were wheeling him along a hallway to take him for an MRI, or maybe a CAT-scan shortly after 7:00 pm when he quietly left this life. I drove to Sterling the next morning and my two youngest sisters and I began the funeral preparations…

Nick volunteered for the United States Army during the Korean Conflict. He was attending pharmacy school at the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago when the war started, and after he graduated and earned his pharmacy license, he entered service and was assigned to an Engineer Unit. After his Engineer Training was completed at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, his unit was sent to the Washington, D.C. area to await orders. And Dad got bored. So he volunteered to work in the Pentagon Pharmacy until he shipped out in order to get away from moving and painting rocks, and whatever other really important tasks are assigned to soldiers who have to hurry up and wait… and he (SP3) went to a dance/social gathering and met a WAC who ran a typing pool: Sgt. Nancee Hauser. And they fell in love. And left the Army. And got married. And had 5 children and 4 grand-children. And Nancee passed away after a long illness 4 years ago. And Dad missed her so terribly. And he told my two youngest sisters that when he died he wanted to be dressed in his best suit, tie, and dress shoes so he looked his grandest when he met up with Mom again. And they got the suit ready to take to the funeral home, and bought him a new shirt and socks. His shoes and belt were a bit dulled, so when I got to Sterling I offered to spit-shine them because: 1) he loved a good spit-shine polish from his days in the Army; 2) he taught me to appreciate and how to spit-shine when I was just a sprout; 3) the State Police academy gave me lots of opportunity to perfect my spit-shine abilities so it is now an easy task; 4) it gave me a strong connection to both my parents at this time of grief and hollowness.  So here is the spit-shining halfway through from yesterday morning. I took the shoes & belt to the funeral home shortly afterwards and then sat with Dad alone for about half an hour saying my final goodbyes…

Did I mention that Mom was a HUGE die-hard Cubbies fan who would quote stats about all the players and games and opposing teams and upcoming prospects….?! So Dad got to deliver the message of the Cubs World Series win to her personally!!

Dad’s Obituary