LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California woman who never knew her father has received his Purple Heart, Silver Star and other military medals he earned before he died in World War II.

Hyla Merin tearfully accepted eight medals earned by her father 2nd Lt. Hyman Markel on Sunday at her home in Thousand Oaks on Sunday.

Markel died while fighting German troops in Italy in 1945, before his daughter was born, and received the Purple Heart and Silver Star posthumously.

In October, the manager of a West Hollywood apartment building where Merin’s mother had lived in the 1960s found a box containing the Purple Heart.

The manager contacted a nonprofit organization that returns medals to vets or their families. The group found Merin and discovered several other medals she should have received.