When the big Ragaglia family of fearless firefighters gets together for Thanksgiving the meal can take hours.
“We’re Irish and Italian, so first we do the raviolis and the meatballs,” said Stephen Ragaglia, 29. “Then we do the traditional turkey and the stuffing.”
But as with many Thanksgiving observances in the year of COVID-19, the huge family gathering at his mother’s home in Staten Island will be a little smaller this year and probably not as long.
“Normally the whole family does a get together,” said Stephen, a Manhattan firefighter. “We have a big family and there are a lot of us. But it’s a lot tougher this year with all the COVID restrictions.”
FDNY Emergency Medical Technician Bianca Ning usually cooks the turkey at her parents’ house on the holiday. Her mother does the dessert, and her father prepares the sides. Their Thanksgiving dinner is infused with Asian influences, so there is turkey, stuffing, chicken with soy sauce, roast pork and Chinese barbecue.
This Thursday, Ning, 28, has a 12-hour day shift at EMS Station 32 in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
“They (my parents) kind of expect it at this point,” Ning said. “They know the job, and they know there is no such thing as a non-working holiday. That comes with the job.”
Among those working a Thanksgiving shift is subway train operator Frank Liu, 30. He’s not griping about it. Liu said he is thankful he has a job this holiday season.
The MTA earlier this month threatened to slash more than 9,300 jobs if Congress does not come through with $12 billion to plug deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m just working as much as I can right now,” Liu said. “We really don’t know when the cuts are going to hit us.”
Liu will work the afternoon shift on Turkey Day, starting at 2:40 p.m. and he suspects it will be a quieter than usual day.
“If COVID wasn’t here, I would be expecting a lot of people out with Thanksgiving shopping and festivities,” he explained. “This year it will probably be quiet. We’re expecting everything to run on schedule.”
One hospital workers getting the day off is Dr. Dana Mazo, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist who is working tests of a COVID-19 vaccine at Mount Sinai Hospital/Queens.
Mazo — lead investigator of a clinical trial for a vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson — will get an entire day at home with her husband and three-year-old daughter.
Her husband is preparing their feast – turkey, rice, cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce – with one exception.
“I’m doing the green beans,” she said. “I’m not a green beans specialist, but it’s something I won’t mess up, hopefully.”
Cristal Torres will spend this Thanksgiving like she spent much of April, sick with COVID, quarantining alone in her room in the home she shares with her parents and daughter.
Torres, a registered nurse at Staten Island University Hospital North, doesn’t know if she got the virus for a second time at work or somewhere else on Staten Island, which has a spike in coronavirus cases.
“I don’t want my family getting sick,” she said, coughing into the phone. “So I’m just going to take this one for the team.”
“I usually make empanadas for my family and now I can’t make them,” she said. “I’ll be making them for Christmas instead.”
Instead of delivering her delicacies to nearby relatives, she’ll be waiting for them to lovingly drop off a plate outside her door while they celebrate but without her, two blocks away.
It’s sad and solitary, but Torres still counts her blessings.
“I wish I was at work. A lot of people are suffering right now,” she said. “I’m grateful because many people died this year, and here I am. I’m pretty sure I’m going to survive this.”
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