Article updated: 7/3/2012 11:51 AM

D-Day veteran, 93, makes art from old medicine bottles

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With his wife, Beatrice, taking lots of medications, 93-year-old World War II veteran Jake Joseph of Prospect Heights decided to put all her empty pill bottles to use. The self-taught folk artist used 170 empty bottles and 175 spent inhalation tubes to craft this log cabin. The lighthouse is made from 60 bottles and 60 tubes.

George LeClaire | Staff Photographer

Modeled after the barn and silo on the farm where he grew up, 93-year-old World War II veteran Jake Joseph of Prospect Heights built this piece of folk art with dozens of empty medication containers compiled by his wife, Beatrice.

George LeClaire | Staff Photographer

Modeled after the barn and silo on the farm where he grew up, 93-year-old World War II veteran Jake Joseph of Prospect Heights built this piece of folk art with dozens of empty medication containers compiled by his wife, Beatrice.

George LeClaire | Staff Photographer

Using empty pill bottles and inhalation tubes from his wife, Beatrice, 93-year-old World War II veteran Jake Joseph crafts one-of-a-kind creations in the couple's Prospect Heights condo.

George LeClaire/gleclaire@dailyherald.co

Instead of focusing on their health problems, 93-year-old Jake Joseph uses the hundreds of empty pill bottles compiled by his wife, Beatrice, to build this log cabin, lighthouse and other one-of-a-kind creations in the couple's condo in Prospect Heights.

George LeClaire/gleclaire@dailyherald.co

World War II veteran Jake Joseph of Prospect Heights.

George LeClaire | Staff Photographer

About this Article

Jake Joseph, a World War II Army sergeant, can tell stories of carnage and death, courage and bravery, but he would rather focus on the much more whimsical activities he's doing now — creating elaborate miniature buildings out of discarded medicine bottles. “It took 170 pill bottles and 175 inhalation tubes to build this log cabin,” the 93-year-old from Prospect Heights said.