Nell
(Neeltje) Lugthart, 1921.
Nell was the youngest surviving Lugthart child of her generation. In later years, Mable would say she was the brightest, the prettiest, the funiest and most loving person she had known. She married John Hart in June, 1923. It was, according to both Neal (Cornelis) and Mable, a match made in heaven. Nell died not long after, of tuberculosis, a complication of the 1918 influenza epidemic. More than thirty years later her husband John, who never remarried, still came to the family reunions in Johnson Park. He never looked much different than he had in 1923, and people said if they let their eyes go just a bit out of focus, they could almost see Nell standing there beside him. Nell and John hadn't had time for children of their own, but John always had time for the little ones, his nieces and nephews. Perhaps in their blood and genes, he was able to sense, just a little, what he and Nell might have had.
June
20, 1923, John and Nellie, on their honeymoon.
