Lost and found
Trending
MIDDLEBURG -- The military bracelet of a late Snyder County World War II veteran was recently discovered 74 years after his death by a man in Wales.
The man's research led him to the Snyder County Historical Society. The society worked to discover any surviving family members. They found Nancy Shilling.
Shilling, of Biglerville, was 18 months old when her father, Albert E. Coleman -- who was born in Beavertown -- was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in 1945.
Her mother Esther, whose maiden name was Arbogast, spoke very little of him.
"My mom was a very private woman," Shilling shared Sunday afternoon before a crowd inside the Snyder County Historical Society in Middleburg.
Throughout her childhood, Shilling would let her curiosity reach its peak and question her mother, who had remarried and had additional children.
Her mother and half siblings had brown hair and brown eyes while Shilling had blond hair and blue eyes, traits belonging to Coleman.
Esther would give tidbits of information, but not the long stories her daughter had longed to hear.
"She (Esther) called him Gene. His middle name was Eugene and he went by that," Shilling said. Shilling was not told about her parents' romance. When she found an old high school yearbook, she realized the pair graduated from the same class in 1938 from Sunbury High School.
"I do know that in 1941 she was receiving mail from him," Shilling said, declaring she assumed the two were romantic at least after graduation when he was serving in the military.
In December 1941, the couple wed. Gene was sent to Texas for training and wives were allowed to stay on base. Esther stayed with him until her mother became ill with cancer. Esther moved back home to Sunbury to be there for her sick mother. Some family members made arrangements that Esther could return to Texas to be with her husband later in 1942.
"I'm glad they did or I wouldn't be here!" Shilling said. In October of 1943 Gene was sent to Ireland and later his infantry unit went to Wales. It was in Wales in a training field where he lost the bracelet.
Shilling later in life discovered letters from her father to her mother, which helped fill in the pieces of the puzzle.
Gene was sent to Normandy for a period of time, writing home about the terribly cold weather and how badly he wanted to come home on a 30-day leave. He shared in the letter that the "catch" to getting that leave was earning a purple heart or other honors. He jokingly said in the letter that would mean he would get leave in three years at least.
On Jan. 7, 1945, Gene turned 26 years old. Days prior he wrote his wife another letter telling her he was getting to be "an old man" and how time was flying by. Ten days after that birthday Gene was killed in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
Shilling said it was many years until her mother told her the story of how she learned of her husband's death.
"My mom did not know right away. The telegram went to her Dad's home in Sunbury," Shilling said.
On more than one occasion her father tried to tell her, but he couldn't bring himself to break his daughter's heart. Another family member gave Esther the news when she came to her father's house with Shilling, who was a toddler.
"She said she immediately felt sick in her stomach and had to lay down," Shilling said.
Shilling said shortly after her mother remarried her stepfather officially adopted her, giving her the last name Burns until she was married.
Shilling said her father's body was not returned to the United States until 1949. A special service was held for him that year and he was buried in the Beavertown cemetery.
Shilling was still quite small then, but she remembers that day.
"If I close my eyes I can see a big brown casket with his picture on top," she said, adding she recalled the gun salute and the American flag wrapped and handed to her mother who in turn handed the flag to Gene's mother.
Shilling said her mother had very few of her late husband's belongings. She had mainly photos and his cut wedding ring and class ring, all of which Shilling brought with her as a part of a display at the event Sunday afternoon.
On the table inside the historical society was the folded flag from Gene's memorial service with a baby shoe on top. Shilling later explained that shoe was in her father's helmet while he was at war. A friend who served with Gene wrote her mother a letter telling her he was given instructions from Gene that "if anything happens to me" to return the baby shoe to his wife.
Esther passed away in 2009 and was much more vocal about her late husband as she aged into her 80s, Shilling said. But Shilling honestly felt the chapter of her parents' lives had been closed.
And then 10 years later she received a call from another Esther.
Esther Klinger, the researcher and a board member with the Snyder County Historical Society, left a voicemail for Shilling asking her to get in touch with her because she may have something belonging to her late father.
Shilling learned that a man by the name of Collin Murphy in Wales was using a metal detector and came across the sterling silver military bracelet with the name Albert G. Coleman still legible. A serial number was on the bracelet. The bracelet was six inches in the earth. Klinger said Murphy was a retired police detective and put his skills to work to get in touch with the family.
A picture of Murphy holding the bracelet was on display with the mementos from Coleman's military career.
Shilling was more than thrilled to come to Snyder County to receive another piece of her father's mysterious past.
Shilling said her oldest daughter has been emailing Murphy and Shilling would like to meet him one day.
This past January her father would have been 100 years old. Shilling celebrated her own birthday -- turning 76 -- just last week.
"To get to this age and to learn more about my father is just really something," Shilling said.