Familiar Northampton presence passes away

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

November 2, 2009 - Barbara H. stops to read the message on the shopping cart dedicated in Bonnie's memory on Market St. Barbara remarked on her generosity and goodwill towards others. "I always gave her a hug when I saw her" Barbara said, "she collected clothing and mailed them to those in need in India. She said that people thought she was crazy, but I always told her that helping people isn't crazy."

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KATHLEEN DUNCAN

November 2, 2009 - On the shopping cart displayed to in memorium of Bonnie, a well known local woman who passed recently, says "Bonnie, All of us on Market St who knew you will never forget you. You gave to those who had less than you had. You worked very hard and with dedication to keep Northampton clean and more beautiful. These flyers will be taken down, but the spirit of you, Bonnie, will always be with us. Love, the People of Market St."

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PAUL SHOUL

Bonnie Ascher poses for photographer Paul Shoul on railroad tracks in downtown Northampton.

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Bonnie/06

NORTHAMPTON - To the outside observer, Bonnie Ascher looked like the kind of person to avoid. She seemed the quintessential "shopping cart lady."

But the people of Market Street - and lots of others - knew better.

Ascher, 61, died Oct. 25 after a hardscrabble life that by all accounts fueled her generosity. The cause of her death was still unclear Monday, a relative said.

Last week, photocopies of a farewell message to Ascher sprang up all along Market Street, taped up in shop windows and tacked to trees and phone poles.

"You gave to those who had less than you," reads the note, which is signed, "The People of Market Street." "You worked very hard and with dedication to keep Northampton clean and more beautiful."

Over the weekend, a white-painted shopping cart appeared on the corner of Market and Bridge streets.

In the last two decades Ascher carved out an unusual existence.

Although she seemed to live comfortably in an apartment above one of the Market Street shops, she worked only odd jobs. Any number of downtown businesses had her as an informal employee who swept the sidewalks outside or wiped down the counters inside.

Skip Traverse, owner of Lucky's Tattoo and Piercing Emporium on Main Street, gave Ascher one of these informal jobs keeping things clean outside his former shop next door, Just Because.

Traverse said Ascher asked him daily about a parrot named Harley that he kept at the store, and even carried on conversations with the bird.

"Every town has characters," Traverse said, putting Ascher right up there with Suntan Man and the recently departed Tim "Fist Bump" Young.

"This town has more than its share of just - personalities," Traverse said.

When she wasn't doing one of her odd jobs, Ascher was rounding up discarded bottles and cans and carting them off by bicycle or shopping cart to a redemption center.

And whether from her labors or some personal nest egg, Ascher somehow had the wherewithal to make a number of charitable donations and ship countless care packages around the country.

"She was always giving to people and it seemed like she had nothing," said Jeanne Mulvey, owner of Retro Genie on Market Street. "She had so much inner turmoil going on but she had such a good heart."

Many recalled the disdain Ascher had for panhandlers, whom she would often call out on the sidewalk. If she could work, she reasoned, why couldn't they?

"Polly want a dollar?" was what she would say to people who asked for handouts underneath the railroad bridge on lower Main Street, recalled Tim Saldo, Roz's Place co-owner.

She would also get irate with motorists when she rode her bicycle, shaking her fist and yelling after them, remembered Jennifer Miller of Walnut Street. But from seeing her day by day around the neighborhood, Miller said she learned this angry woman was "really a sweetheart" underneath.

"She was ornery on the surface but she had a good soul inside," said Police Chief Russell Sienkiewicz, who said he chatted with Ascher whenever their paths crossed at restaurants like Spoleto and Packards.

Gave to others

Ascher was a regular donor to a charity for land mine victims in Central and South America, said attorney Joseph DeFazio. And she once gave $50 at a fundraiser for a Nicaraguan prosthetics clinic, said Spoleto owner Claudio Guerra.

For as long as anyone could remember, Ascher had been sending used clothes to Indian reservations around the U.S. and Canada. She had a strong interest in Native American art and music, said L&M Antiques owner Louis Farrick, who occasionally drove her to pow-wows in Connecticut.

John Makara, a supervisor at the Northampton post office, said Ascher regularly filled her shopping cart with eight or more "really large" boxes to ship.

Victoria Conklin, a postal worker who helped her mail many of those parcels, said Ascher even came to her aid after she lost all her belongings in the fire at Meadowbrook Apartments in April.

"That woman would give the shirt off her back," Conklin said.

Ascher's mother, Jeanette Ascher of Springfield, said she doesn't know exactly what caused her daughter's death, though she did have many health problems.

Jeanette Ascher said she last spoke to her daughter the morning before her death. She said she visited her daughter weekly and drove her on errands around Northampton. Jeanette said her daughter had been sidelined for a few weeks because of a medical problem, and that she was anxious to get back to her routine.

Later that day, Jeanette said, a neighbor stopped to check on Bonnie and found her on the floor. He called 911, and an ambulance took her to Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She was later transferred to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she died.

A memorial service was held last Thursday at the family funeral home in Springfield. Many Northampton residents and business people whose lives Ascher touched were there.

This week, the memorial continues on Market Street.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.