Loved and Lost: Ismael Lugo and Lunisol Guzman never got to celebrate first wedding anniversary – NorthJersey.com

This story is part of Loved and Lost, a statewide media collaboration working to celebrate the life of every New Jersey resident who died of COVID-19. To learn more and submit a loved one’s name to be profiled, visit lovedandlostnj.com.

Lunisol Guzman was the head of her Newark household, with three children and a full-time job driving a bus.

Ismael Lugo Jr. was the father of two, retired from the Air Force and a longtime employee of the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, where he managed a warehouse filled with case files. 

They met more than 10 years ago, through a mutual friend, and fell in love. There were shared family gatherings, several trips to the Caribbean — and, in recent years, a lifelong commitment to raising a little boy and girl whom Guzman had fostered and later adopted. 

The couple were married in August 2019, but they would never get the chance to celebrate their first wedding anniversary. Lugo died on April 11 at the age of 48 and his wife died less than a month later, on May 7, at age 50. She never knew he had died.

Now, her grown daughters are caring for the children —  Zavion, 4, and Jazzmyn, 2 — as their mother would have wanted.  

“We want to raise them together,’’ said Katherine, who lives in Elizabeth with Jazzmyn, while her sister lives with Zavion in Newark, about 10 minutes away.  “Maybe in the future we will get a two-family property.”

The adoptions weren’t a surprise for the couple’s family. After all, Guzman and Lugo loved children and were known to guide and help those in need.  

“His heart was too big for a lot of people, he cared a lot,’’ said his daughter, Nephetina Lugo, of Burlington. “And she cared a lot about her family. I didn’t have a mother figure while growing up, and she was probably the very first woman to show me what a mom was like.” 

Lugo was born in Brooklyn, the child of Puerto Rican parents with some Italian ancestry as well. He served as a lieutenant colonel of the Air Force Civil Air Patrol for more than two decades. He also was employed by the Prosecutor’s Office for 30 years.

Nephetina said he was a loving dad, whom she could always depend on when she needed him, even though they could clash at times. He also had a 13-year-old son, Giovanni. 

Loved and Lost:Lucy Sarappo was fiercely independent with a generous side

Loved and Lost:Dr. James Albert Wilson, pioneering Dominican doctor, was proof of power of books

Lugo was a model train builder who had a room in the house devoted to his trains, she said. He also enjoyed cooking and organizing get-togethers, where he served a mix of food representing his roots. Sometimes there would be arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas) and a side of pasta, and often some coquito, a coconut-based alcoholic drink popular in Puerto Rico. 

“He would cook all day, he was very big on cooking,’’ she said. “He cooked pernil, a lot of Hispanic food, and he loved steaks and mushrooms.” 

Guzman, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic 28 years ago, would often be in charge of playing the Spanish music at the family gatherings, Nephetina said.

Guzman moved to the United States when Katherine was 4 years old, and later gave birth to Jennifer and Andy. During those early years, Katherine said, her mom held jobs as a hotel worker and home health aide, and later got her license to drive a bus. She drove a commuter bus for Academy for several years before being hired by Montclair State University to drive the shuttle on campus.

“She felt very connected to the students, she would always say the kids remind me so much of you guys,’’ her daughter recalled.  “After her passing, I had a lot of students reach out to me regarding how there were times she would stop in places that there wasn’t necessarily a stop to make sure that the students would get to their location safely.” 

Guzman said her mother began to foster children because she saw a need in her community, but also because years ago she lost a baby when she was eight months pregnant.

“That was very traumatic for her, and she always thought there was a piece of us missing,’’ said Katherine. 

She began to foster Zavion when he was weeks old and later adopted him. Zavion’s birth mother then had Jazzmyn, and Guzman adopted her two years later.   

“She wanted to keep the siblings together,’’ Katherine said. 

 Her mother embraced being a mom of little ones again.

“She was learning everything all over again, but she was great,’’ she said. “We have great memories of the kids laughing with her and her feeding them and taking them to the park and celebrating their birthdays together.” 

She also received help from Lugo, who had a good rapport with the children and took the responsibility of being a father seriously, his daughter said. He had helped raise Nephetina’s oldest sister, Diamante Rivera, even though she wasn’t his biological daughter, she said.  

Guzman and Lugo fell sick at the same time, and were admitted to Clara Maas Hospital in Belleville just a day apart. 

Guzman was on a ventilator for several weeks but, with the help of hospital workers, her children were able to talk to her via Facetime. Besides Katherine, Jennifer and Andy, sometimes Zavion and Jazzmyn would join in on the calls.

“They would say, “Mommy, we miss you, we love you,’’ Katherine recalled. “I had hoped and hoped that just hearing their voices would keep her fighting.”