Falvo Funeral Home

Mark, a former justice of the Penfield Town Court, judge of the Monroe County Court, justice of the New York state Supreme Court and Marine Corps veteran, died on Saturday, Feb. 10. He was 91. Justice Mark is remembered by family and friends for his love of criminal law and his dedication to the U.S. Marine Corps, in which he served during both World War II and the Korean War. He also was a retired colonel in New York National Guard. "My father was 65 years old and trying to enlist to go to the Persian Gulf," said Mark's daughter, Laurie, laughing at a memory of her father writing a letter to persuade his acceptance. "He was declined and was devastated. He was a Marine through and through." Justice Mark was born in Rochester on March 31, 1926. He attended St. Andrew's School and Aquinas Institute before enlisting. Upon returning from his service, he was accepted into Syracuse University where he attended with financial support from the GI Bill. He later studied at Cornell Law School, from where he graduated before beginning to practice in 1953. Justice Mark made a name for himself in the courtroom over the several decades he served the...

Predeceased by son, Edgardo Luis Aponte of Rochester; father, Edgardo Aponte Sr. of Puerto Rico. Survived by his wife, Sonia; children, Selena, Trinity and Veronica Aponte; stepdaughter, Tatiana Draper; his mother, Susana Ramos-Diaz; sister, Jessica Diaz; brother, Edwin Aponte (Clarissa Torres). Calling hours are Saturday from 2-4 and 6-8 p.m. at Falvo Funeral Home, 1395 N. Goodman St. Funeral Services and Interment private.

She had only been alive for 13 months. Her condition, a genetic disease known as spinal muscular atrophy, had first presented as muscle weakness. At the end, she could not move her muscles. She could neither say if she was hungry nor feed herself if she was. But funerals cost money, and Skylynne Bogaski’s parents had spent most of theirs on her medical treatments by the time she died in 2017. So, they did what a lot of people are doing now and reached out for help. “We knew if we didn’t raise the money, she wouldn’t have had a funeral,” said Joe Bogaski, Skylynne’s half-brother. “We see GoFundMe campaigns all the time, so we thought, ‘Why don’t we try?’” They had to try. Rising funeral costs have forced families to try meeting expenses through online crowd-funding initiatives.  Digital apps and websites such as YouCaring, Indiegogo and Elegy offer fundraising options geared toward funerals and memorials. GoFundMe is a leading crowd-sourcing campaign site that claims to have raised more than $5 billion. Type “funeral” into a crowd-funding search engine and it will show at least 750 Pittsburgh-area GoFundMe campaigns.  This makes sense, as the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) reports that average cremation-viewing costs $6,260 — and traditional viewings and burials cost $1,100 on top of that.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that national funeral expenses have spiked by over 220 percent since 1986, much higher than inflation over that time period. Reasons include rising costs of caskets and land. Add that with Allegheny County’s death rates (amongst the nation’s highest), local funeral directors said they were not surprised to experience a significant uptick in Pittsburghers utilizing crowd-funding sources to pay the bills. click to enlarge ...