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HERALD Families pack Rath Park fair
Honoring the fallen heros
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Vol. 28 No. 23
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Longstanding legacy behind local business By HAIlEY FUlMER hfulmer@liherald.com
Courtesy Abbas Jaffer
Abbas Jaffer kept all of his employees throughout the coronavirus pandemic, and said he treats them like family.
For Abbas Jaffer, the sign manufacturing business is more than a career — it is a family legacy that stretches back decades. Jaffer, 58, the owner of Architectural Sign Group Inc., in Elmont, has spent decades building a company rooted in craftsmanship and family. What began as a small operation started by his wife in their home has grown into a regional manufacturing business employing more than 30 people and contributing to some of the metropolitan area’s most recognizable transportation projects. But the story of Architectural Sign Group began long before it was founded in Elmont. Jaffer’s family’s involvement in the industry dates to 1954, when his uncle Aunali Khalfan started Tanzania Sign Writers in Tanzania, East Africa. The company produced municipal and traffic signs, and gradually Continued on pAge 7
105-year-old woman marks birthday with family By HAIlEY FUlMER hfulmer@liherald.com
Emma Pughielli turned 105 on May 23, celebrating with her family and a cake in a quiet ceremony that has come to define her later years, which has centered on being together with the people she loves most. The birthday milestone did not include large crowds or elaborate plans — just her at her house in Calverton surro u n d e d by h e r ch i l d re n , grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who gathered to share time together with a chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. “She was happy just seeing
my kids,” her grandson, John Frascella, said. “That was really all she needed.” Pughielli, a longtime Franklin Square resident who now lives in Calverton, was born in the Bronx in 1921 and has lived through more than a century of American life. But her family said she doesn’t often look back on history as big, defining events, but instead focuses on the everyday parts of life. Instead, they describe a woman who focuses on family, meals, phone calls, holidays and simply being present. Frascella said her presence has always been the constant in the family.
“It means everything to us,” he said about the major milestone. He described how many people in the community know their family and often ask about her, noting that 105 has b e c o m e a n i n s p i r at i o n t o many. She’s been described as “never really overdoing it” — not just in terms of diet, but in how she lived her life, as Frascella put it. For decades, Pughielli was the center of family life, especially during Thanksgiving, when relatives traveled from across the country to gather at her home. The house would fill with food, conversation and
children running in and out — traditions that her family members still talk about today. Even in her earlier years, she kept up a lifestyle that her family said contributed to her good health and long life. She bowled in local leagues well into her 60s and 70s, collecting trophies that ador ned the shelves of her home. She also
knitted and crocheted blankets and quilts for family members, continuing that hobby until the age of about 100. F rascella said she also worked for a sports card company during the early days of the industry, when now-valuable collectibles like Mickey Mantle rookie cards were just Continued on pAge 20