Frank Benjamin Guida

To us, Frank & Mathilda always made us feel like family, and we love them and the children as such. We will always cherish his memory.

All our love,
The Addesso Family

I first met my dear Uncle Frank when I was a baby.
I know this because he often told me how he proudly pushed his little Annie in her carriage and with a little twinkle in his eye how he reveled in all the attention he received from the ladies who would gather around him to gaze at the little girl and the handsome young sailor who was wheeling her around.
He was my uncle and my godfather and most especially someone who played an enduring role throughout my life.
He and Aunt Mathilda always told me that my presence in their lives helped to fill the loss of their first born child, their beloved Julia, and so they always treated me like a daughter.
Growing up I was in trouble pretty much all the time because of my tomboyish ways. At the age of nine I had two major injuries spaced six months apart that sent me to the emergency room. On both occasions my poor mother was beside herself. Upon hearing the news Uncle Frank, without hesitation jumped in his trusty black Ford with my hysterical mother in tow and both times faithfully got me to the hospital in record time.
I did manage to survive my adolescence but then my teen years approached and it came time for me to learn how to drive.
When I was fifteen years old I had an emergency appendectomy at the precise time they were teaching Drivers Ed in school, which prevented me from completing the driver training course…so guess who bravely got in the car with me and guided me through the essentials I had missed in school..….Yes, dear Uncle Frank.
He did this even though he thought I had a lead foot and affectionately called me Jocko….he continued to patiently sit beside me in the dreaded passenger's seat until I got my license.
Memories of him swirl in my mind…
I remember him lying on his side sprawled across the living room floor holding his head up watching television.
I see myself as a young girl standing beside him in his muddy boots in the backyard of the duplex that both our families shared on Phillip Avenue watching him water his vegetable garden as the sun was setting in the late afternoon.
Visions of him fertilizing and spraying his gorgeous salmon colored, yellow and two toned pink roses that were so perfect you needed to touch them to know they were real.
And how could any of us forget his incomparable pasta with clam sauce.
He was always the first one up in the morning and the first one to turn in at night.
I also remember that when he corrected me he suddenly seemed to acquire a British accent.
He always reminded me that he changed my diapers no matter who was present.
His fabulous blinding smile
His love and respect for his parents Michael and Angelina Guida and his brother, Andy and all our relatives here on the Southside including my dear mother and father and those in Newport News who he visited often and his special attention and care to his maiden aunts, Josephine and especially his Aunt Mickey.
His many friends his cousin Ben whom he shared a closeness and mutual admiration and Ben's wife Florence and his great times with Bob Fiscella who would fly the boys to Florida on his private jet.
His great love and pride for his successful children, Loretta, Joey, Michael and Marcia and their spouses Stan, Thary, Joe and Tom and his fantastic grandchildren, Tommy, Michael and Frank, Leigh and Kevin.
His wonderful relationship with our precious Mama Annetta.
These memories and so many more define the man that he was.
Inheritantly good, extremely intelligent, honorable, reliable, generous and religious.
And now, Uncle Frank as we your loved ones sit in the audience of the final act of your life the curtain descends and as you step back you feel the warmth of a spiritual being beside you clasping your hand….Yes, Uncle Frank…. it is your beautiful Mathilda……………..you are home.

God Bless you both.

I love you.
Anne

Having been friends of the family and working with Frank at the City of Norfolk, I can say he was a great leader and man. He will be missed. God Bless the Guida family during this time of sorrow.

My heartfelt condolences to Loretta, Joe, Mike, & Marcia. I will never forget your dad's visits to our home. He filled the house with warmth, life, and vigor whenever he entered. Peace to all and I will miss him.

Frank was a lovely, gentle man. He and Jack were my first bosses when i went into real estate so many years ago. my love and sympathy goes out to the family.