Buma Funeral Home

Bonasoro, a lifelong resident and one of five children, was born when his older siblings were in their late teens and early 20s.“He always laughed that he had multiple parents growing up,” said Bonasoro’s wife, Cheryl. “He grew up in a house of adults.”According to his wife, Bonasoro learned quickly from his parents and older siblings the that it was his duty to lend a helping hand when he could. He would end up taking that to a professional level.“His love of taking care of older people and people in need just continued to flourish,” she said.Bonasoro died at the age of 70 on Sunday at Tufts Medical Center, according to his obituary.He began a long career of public service when he was 21, being elected to the Board of Public Welfare.He also had a long stint with the Housing Authority, serving as executive director and then as a commissioner. where he played a part in building two housing developments.At the time of his death, he held positions on both the Housing Authority and the Board of Assessors.When the couple married, the question came up about where they would live.“I can’t move out of Milford,” Cheryl remembers her husband saying. “I am here – I’m a public servant.”Prior to his work on the Housing Authority, Bonasoro worked for Green Leaf Financial Services as vice president of operations, another platform he used to help others.In the guestbook of his online obituary, Janice Wagner wrote that she and her husband needed help establishing credit and were able to get a loan with Bonasoro’s help.Cheryl recalled when her husband, organizing a fundraiser for a local club, set a record for money raised.“He was just as proud as a peacock to be able to do that,” she said, adding that since his death, dozens have told her similar stories of how her husband went out of his way to help.His good heart showed itself in his everyday interactions with people. “If he didn’t know 95 percent of the people walking the streets of Milford, something was wrong,” Cheryl said.One of h... (Milford Daily News)

Her grandson Grady, 4 months, lay in the stroller laughing at any funny faces he could, while her other grandson, Jackson, 2, ran around the playground with the regular clumsiness of a toddler.“Go show them how you can climb the monkey bars, they don’t believe you can do it,” said Pluta while Jackson looked at her, smiling.“Yes, I can,” said Jackson, running toward the playground to show off his skills.Pluta said she takes her grandchildren to the Town Park often because it’s quiet and there are plenty of playgrounds to choose from.“This is a nice little playground,” she said. “I have to go to work soon so we stopped by for a while.”Resident and regular Jessica McGuire said that the park is an amenity.“I come here to be with friends and go to playground,” she said. “We spend a lot of time here. It’s so open, and the concerts are nice. … It’s all centrally located; the library is right here and it’s a great place to meet friends and for playdates.”The Town Park is surrounded by Victorian style houses dating back to the 1850s, a lot of which have since been converted into multi-family homes. The Mansard roofs atop most of the houses give the neighborhood a distinct quality.One of the bigger, more prominent houses is the Buma-Sargeant Funeral Home. Originally built as a farm in 1854 by a Benjamin Davenport Godfrey, whose daughter, Annie, married Melville Dewey. Dewey was the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System, the universal cataloguing system in every library in the U.S. before digital cataloging came along.The house was later sold to a Dr. Harvey, who opened a for-profit hospital next door at what is now Edwards Funeral Home.“The reason that’s not well known is because that was the same year that the Draper Family donated a parcel of land for a nonprofit hospital,” said Buma-Sargeant funeral director James Buma. “Harvey was in business for a year and got blown out of the water.”The house fell into disrepair before a Joseph Sargent purchased the property in 1943 and turn... (Wicked Local)