This heart has found its way home.
A New Jersey woman whose uncle served bravely in World War II was able to recover her late relative’s long-lost Purple Heart after finding it at a Texas flea market earlier this summer.
Margarita Manhart, 88, was reunited with the military medal her love, George Arthur Cerrito, earned in 1945 after suffering a traumatic brain injury during combat in Europe.
When the medal went missing in the early 2000s, the family thought they would never see it again.
“This is a wonderful thing,” she told The Washington Post on Wednesday night, a day after Zachariah Fike of the nonprofit group Purple Hearts United visited her at her Edison Township home to return her Purple Heart.
The Purple Heart was presented in a plaque along with a photograph and other memorabilia. Footage captured by CBS 2 NY.
Cerrito, who grew up in Hoboken, volunteered to serve in the U.S. war effort, but while fighting with Gen. George Patton’s Third Army at the Battle of Bostogne, his tank was hit and fellow soldiers pulled him from the wreckage, she said.
The injury to the left side of his head was so severe that initially he was unable to walk or talk and had to relearn them all over again.
The family worked together and took turns caring for Uncle George throughout his life, and despite the challenges, Uncle George had a cheerful nature.
“He was a very jolly guy,” Manhart recalled, “very funny and laughed a lot.”
Cerrito never married or had any children and died in 1993 at age 75. At the time, his entire fortune, which Manhart calls “the family jewels,” was inherited by one of his sisters.
When my sister died, the house she lived in with all her heirlooms was transferred to another relative, who was sharing the home with her fiancé.
That relative died of cancer at age 45, and the fate of the Purple Heart became unclear afterward because of a bad relationship between his fiance and his family, Manhart said.
An Air Force veteran noticed the Purple Heart at a Texas flea market and purchased it with the intention of sending it to Purple Hearts Reunited, whose mission is to connect lost military medals with veterans and their families.
“I am very happy to receive this plaque, medal and commemoration. I am overwhelmed with joy,” Manhart said.
“This whole situation is so amazing and it brings back memories. I spent so much time with Uncle George… we spent so much time together.”
Manhart was overcome with emotion as he thought about the sacrifices he had made for his country, and although he was too old to be drafted, he still wanted to fight.
“He joined the Army to save America, and that’s what he did,” she said. “His heroism comes back to me powerfully.”
