Oceanside/Island Park Herald

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Oceanside/Island Park

HERALD Super reflects on school closure

a happy, safe 100th birthday

i.P. schools adjust grading policies

Page 13

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Vol. 55 No. 19

may 7 - 13, 2020

‘Fighting for her life’

Charlie fraNziNi aNd Paige McCarthy had planned their wedding in Aruba for April 18, but postponed it to July 18 due to Covid-19.

Oceanside resident recovering from battle with Covid-19 induced coma for six days. She recounted that she had tubes attached to her neck and arms. Debbie Rifenbury thought she When she awoke, she said, she might die. On April 3 she was still struggled to breathe and had admitted to Mount Sinai South a powerful cough. Nassau hospital with a She was determined to make 105-degree fever and an oxygen it through the ordeal so she level of 80 percent. could again see her She was told that if boyfriend, Michael she wasn’t put on a Miller; her daughve n t i l a t o r, s h e ters, Danielle, Jane might not make it. and Ada; and her “It felt like I had grandchildren, a knapsack on my Ava, Ida, Landon l u n g s t h at w a s and Nathan. Miller being pushed on,” said he was conshe recalled. “I cerned about Rifencouldn’t breathe.” bury’s health when Two days earlier deBBie she went to urgent on April 1, Rifencare, but was starrifeNBury bury said, she tled when he got a s t a r t e d t o f e e l Oceanside resident call from the hospi“weird,” but didn’t tal informing him have any idea how that the medical grim her condition staff had to place would become. On his girlfriend on a April 3, she drove ventilator so that from her Oceanside home to an she would live. urgent-care center in Lynbrook, “It was really a horrible feeland from there she was rushed ing,” he said, “because it’s somein an ambulance to MSSN, body I love, and she’s fighting for where she was diagnosed with her life. It was really a harrowCovid-19. ing experience. . . . You have When she arrived at the hos- somebody that you care for, and pital, Rifenbury, 61, was put on a you really don’t know what’s ventilator in the intensive care unit and placed in a medically Continued on page 13

By mike SmolliNS msmollins@liherald.com

i

felt like I had a knapsack on my lungs that was being pushed on.

Courtesy Lisa McCarthy

OHS sweethearts must

postpone their wedding By BriaNa BoNfiglio bbonfiglio@liherald.com

In early March, Oceanside High School sweethearts Paige McCarthy, 27, and Charlie Franzini, 28, began questioning whether they could go ahead with their April 18 wedding in Aruba. By mid-March, stay-athome orders had taken effect. McCarthy, a teacher and gymnastics coach at Vall e y S t re a m S o u t h H i g h School, was homebound at

the couple’s house in Long Beach, where they have lived together for three years. F r a n z i n i , a re a l e s t at e finance portfolio manager in Manhattan, was also working from home. On March 20, they postponed the wedding, and told their 150 guests to cancel their flights. They have set a new wedding date of July 18, and while they remain realistic about the situation, they said they hope they won’t need to reschedule it a

second time. “I was definitely sad,” McCarthy said. “A lot of people were going to make the trip, and I felt so bad that so many people had to get on the phone with the airlines and hotels. If it was a wedding here, it would be a quick email or call, but now our guests had to be a part of it.” “I was upset, too,” Franzini said, “but we’re both just trying to focus on the fact Continued on page 3


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