Let them eat cookies.

That’s one of Joe Guinasso’s last contributions to the world.

At 49, he died in mid-April surrounded by family in his Bellevue home. Raised in West Seattle, where he still has family roots, Guinasso battled colon cancer for years — though he never let it show or stop him from being with family or meeting his work expectations as the city of Sammamish’s finance and IT director.

“He was all about living,” his wife, Stacy, said during a recent interview with their son and daughter.

After Joe Guinasso was diagnosed with stage-four cancer in February 2014, he took weekly trips to Seattle’s Swedish Cancer Institute for his chemotherapy.

He didn’t stop working, and he certainly never stopped joking.

“He was the biggest jokester,” Guinasso’s 15-year-old daughter, Julie, said.

Most of their stories cut off by back-and-forth glances between the three trying to determine if the jokes they recalled were appropriate to share.

What they did share paints a good enough picture — one Sammamish city staff have told time and time again: He’s a kindhearted, funny, family man.

Between the Friday disco parties in the living room with his children and wife or making homemade ravioli with his Italian relatives for Thanksgiving, Guinasso will be remembered through their stories.

“He never brought any of the cancer stuff home,” his son, Vinny, said.

He never missed one of his son’s baseball games or his daughter’s theatre performances.

“Nothing was worth missing what they were doing,” Stacy Guinasso said. “He would rather stay home” than be anywhere else.

She asked him if he wanted to travel or do something outside of their regular routine, and he always answered the same way: “I love my life. I don’t need to jump out of a plane or go to Italy. I wouldn’t change a thing,” Stacy recalled him saying.

He’d download clips from movies like “Step Brothers” for entertainment during chemo, which he watched between working on treatment days.

The building where he received chemo was out-of-date. Joe Guinasso, being aware of others, wanted to see the people coming in for this treatment, which wrecks the body, to feel comfortable. He wanted them to be able to kickback and watch shows on big screen TVs.

As it happened, the entire floor would be remodeled, including the addition of televisions. So, when Stacy Guinasso called about setting something up with donations made to the center in Joe’s name, she thought of another way that money could be spent: “to keep Popsicles in the freezer and cookies on the counter,” she said.

The kitchen on this would-be remodeled floor will be stocked with free comfort foods for patients receiving chemotherapy there.

His son, now 18 and on his college’s baseball team, has already raised $400 in Joe’s name.

“He told me from the start, he was at peace,” Stacy Guinasso said. They were married for more than 20 years.

To donate to Swedish Cancer Institute in Joe Guinasso’s name, mail to Swedish Cancer Center, c/o Swedish Medical Center Foundation, 747 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122. Be sure to reference Guinasso’s name so funds go toward stocking the refrigerator.