Joseph Guagenti, a longtime Howard Beach resident and decorated World War II veteran, was laid to rest last Friday. He was 94 and suffered briefly from what his family believes was the COVID-19 virus before passing away at his home on April 26.

“He was funny, caring, kind, giving and a second dad to his three granddaughters. Our true hero,” his granddaughter Kristie Espinal said in an email to the Chronicle. Guagenti was the son of Italian immigrants who settled in Brooklyn. But in World War II he would fight to free the Europe his parents left.