{"id":78812,"date":"2020-04-20T07:19:21","date_gmt":"2020-04-20T11:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=78812"},"modified":"2020-04-22T04:50:30","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T08:50:30","slug":"doubly-blessed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/","title":{"rendered":"Doubly Blessed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A well-known couple, and longtime residents of Owego, had several reasons to celebrate last weekend, and were able to do so from a social distance. All this, thanks to some tech savvy relatives that wanted to share in birthday celebrations for both Jim Sr. and Virginia Raftis, and, of course, the celebration of Easter. <\/p>\n

Ironically, and only happening for the third time in her life, Virginia\u2019s birthday fell on Easter Sunday. Jim\u2019s Birthday was on Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"Doubly<\/a>

Virginia Raftis is pictured on the porch in The Flats on her birthday last Sunday, which was also Easter Day. Provided photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

But with social distancing in place, Virginia celebrating her 84th birthday and Jim his 88th, family members had to come up with a way to celebrate these occasions while keeping everyone safe.<\/p>\n

Social media was one of the creative ways to celebrate. Jim\u2019s son, also Jim Raftis, took photos of both Virginia and Jim on their porch in the Flats area in Owego and posted them to Facebook.<\/p>\n

In one photo, Jim is holding a sign that says, \u201cHappy 88th Birthday,\u201d his hand resting on the American flag. Virginia\u2019s sign read, \u201cHappy Birthday and Blessed Easter.\u201d <\/p>\n

Jim stated he received about 300 comments and 266 reactions to the post; Virginia had 200 comments and 280 reactions.<\/p>\n

\"Doubly<\/a>

Pictured is the basket left by the family on Jim and Virginia\u2019s porch last Sunday by family members, and prior to a videoconference. Provided photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

But the highlight for Jim, he noted, was on Sunday when his sister Carol, a former teacher living in the Newark, N.J. area, arranged a zoom conference with family members from Birmingham, Alabama; Denver, Colorado; two locations in New Jersey; Olean, N.Y.; Syracuse, N.Y.; and even from Los Vegas. Jim\u2019s grandson, Joshua, who\u2019s getting ready to graduate from law school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a ceremony that has been postponed, was online for the Zoom call. <\/p>\n

All together, there were over a dozen family members that joined in the call to sing Happy Birthday, and to pass some one-liners to each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was wonderful,\u201d said Jim of the call, exclaiming, \u201cWe had the entire family all at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Doubly<\/a>

Jim Raftis Sr. is pictured during last year\u2019s birthday; an occasion celebrated annually at the Romeo table at Becky\u2019s Diner in Waverly. Provided photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

For the celebration, Jim\u2019s granddaughter Stephanie, who is a third year first grade teacher at Ithaca Elementary Northeast, brought a basket to set on the porch. Inside were cards, pencils, pens, and of course, Jim said with a chuckle, hand sanitizers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo eggs,\u201d Jim continued.<\/p>\n

A sign in the basket, that stated, \u201cStay Safe and Stay Healthy – We care about you,\u201d summed up the nature of this year\u2019s birthday celebration for both Virginia and Jim.<\/p>\n

You see, a normal birthday celebration for Jim Raftis is at the Romeo table at Becky\u2019s Diner each year. But when we initially spoke with Jim about his unique birthday celebration, he stated that the late Leon Thomas sent him a message from heaven, telling him to stay home.<\/p>\n

A Romeo birthday celebration is a sight to see! And this year\u2019s Romeo birthday celebration would have covered four members, celebrating birthdays simultaneously. The grand event was planned for April 14, and would have included the birthdays of Jim, Mayor Pat Ayres, Frank Roney, and Jim Smith. <\/p>\n

\"Doubly<\/a>

Pictured is a sign that Jim and Virginia\u2019s family left in an Easter Basket for them. Provided photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Sadly, and because of the pandemic, it never materialized. And the birthday cards weren\u2019t passing around the table for Jim Raftis this year, or the others. Jim did note, however, that he received a card from Waverly\u2019s former Mayor, a second in command of sorts at the Romeo table, Dan Leary. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll save the cards for a later date,\u201d said Jim, as he talked fondly of his friends, the Romeos. <\/p>\n

He noted that there are approximately one dozen Romeo members that routinely gather, especially on a birthday, and then twice a year they have a picnic at The Falls at Waverly Glen. They make an annual visit, as well, to Jack Millage at the nursing center in Athens, Pa.<\/p>\n

Jim Raftis was welcomed into the group once he was able to prove he was born at the old Tioga County General. \u201cThis qualified me to be a Romeo,\u201d Jim said, adding, \u201cI had three years of probation before Leon [Thomas] let me in.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for this year, it was off to the porch. Sunday\u2019s videoconference, straight from The Flats in Owego allowed him to connect even further with his family. <\/p>\n

As for Easter Sunday the couple celebrated mass in a big way, watching four Easter Sunday Masses – Pope Francis celebrating the Solemn Mass of Easter from a nearly empty St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and then his Easter Message and Greetings to the World at 5 a.m.; Easter Mass live on EWTN at 8 a.m.; Archbishop Timothy Cardinal Dolan celebrating Easter Mass and homily from an empty St. Patrick\u2019s Cathedral at 10:15 a.m.; and Rochester Bishop Salvatore Matano celebrating Easter Mass and homily from Sacred Heart Cathedral at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n

For Virginia, with her birthday falling once again on Easter Sunday, she was feeling doubly blessed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A well-known couple, and longtime residents of Owego, had several reasons to celebrate last weekend, and were able to do so from a social distance….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":78813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nDoubly Blessed - Owego Pennysaver Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doubly Blessed - Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A well-known couple, and longtime residents of Owego, had several reasons to celebrate last weekend, and were able to do so from a social distance....\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Owego Pennysaver Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/The-Owego-Pennysaver-49179420591\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-04-20T11:19:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-22T08:50:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/04\/Blassed1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"psadvert\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/\",\"name\":\"Doubly Blessed - Owego Pennysaver Press\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/04\/Blassed1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-04-20T11:19:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-22T08:50:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/#\/schema\/person\/e03684194434956dfb61f5ffcbc19492\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2020\/04\/20\/doubly-blessed\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/04\/Blassed1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/www.greenstreetdata.com\/PS\/owego\/files\/2020\/04\/Blassed1.jpg\",\"width\":1040,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Jim Raftis Sr. is pictured on his porch in The Flats on his birthday last Saturday. 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