{"id":15707,"date":"2015-12-21T17:06:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=15707"},"modified":"2015-12-21T21:27:44","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T21:27:44","slug":"a-special-christmas-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/?p=15707","title":{"rendered":"A Special Christmas Gift……..,"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Almost two years ago I got a great Christmas Gift, in March! \u00a0I was speaking at the Florida Birding Festival and was introduced to John Oakley and his grand daughter, Ralphi (Raphaella) Oakley. \u00a0She was a very sweet young lady and had won the Youth contest at the festival. \u00a0The more I talked with her and John it was obvious what an exceptional young lady she was, and how talented. \u00a0I offered her a His Light Scholarship. \u00a0Later she attended a workshop with John, and her sister Nina. \u00a0It went so well that I extended the scholarship for another event. \u00a0Long story short, I’ve had the opportunity to meet and come to love a great family! \u00a0Tami, her mother is a terrific lady, classy and sweet, and her other sister Carlie has become a great friend too! \u00a0 She has an assortment of brothers, all great guys, and a new baby sister Mia. \u00a0It \u00a0has been a real pleasure for Sherlene and I to get to know them.<\/p>\n

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Back to photography, Ralphi has developed into a terrific shooter and gets better by the minute! \u00a0The most impressive thing about her work is the diversity of her subject matter! \u00a0Ralphi has been willing to try any new subject category and excels at everything! \u00a0Here are some of her wonderful photographs!<\/p>\n

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I am constantly amazed at how she adapts to such diverse subjects, and has a great feel for each! When I visited the store the family owns, Original Pieces, I got to see some of the fashion posters she has created and was once again I so impressed with her diversity. Here were \u00a0few of my favorites,<\/p>\n

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So almost two years later I keep getting a great Christmas gift over and over, thanks John, and Nina, and Carlie, Tami, and the boys, and most of all, thanks for turning my gift into a great gift to myself! Thanks Ralphi, and Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n

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Nina, John and Ralphi! \u00a0I want to nominate John for Grandfather of the Year, he has brought Ralphi to 9 workshops!<\/p>\n

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Blessings,<\/p>\n

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the pilgrim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Almost two years ago I got a great Christmas Gift, in March! \u00a0I was speaking at the Florida Birding Festival and was introduced to John Oakley and his grand daughter, Ralphi (Raphaella) Oakley. \u00a0She was a very sweet young lady and had won the Youth contest at the festival. \u00a0The more I talked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronicles"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15707"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15734,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15707\/revisions\/15734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/billfortney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}