Rafi was always proud of his vegetable garden. His general personality was one of attentiveness to his loved ones and those around him. He took that same attitude to his vegetables. Rafi did not have a large garden. In fact, it was just a porch with some planters that he made from wood where he bought soil and then created small areas where he grew tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and a few other vegetables. But it's not always about the size of garden that matters most but its how much you get out of what you have. Rafi always seemed to find a way to get a bountiful harvest. He made sure the plants would be watered at the right time and at the right amount. He even tried to scheme to find ways to keep one particular squirl out of his little patch. Nurture defined much of Rafi's life. He nurtured that little garden of his so it grew sweet vegetables that produced plenty for a little area. He liked to give those who visited a few tomatoes or cucumbers and made sure you knew his vegetables were loved. Come to think of it, he really just extended his nurturing spirit from people to plants and back again.

Every time we visited Jiddu (In Chicago) for Christmas and Thanksgiving every mourning I woke up 

The story of Rafi really began in a remote monastery called Mar (St.) Mattai Monastery, or St. Matthew Monastery, located on Mount Alfaf in northern Iraq sometime around 1940. The monastery is ancient, dating to the 4th century AD when the Sasanian Empire once ruled Iraq. The story goes that Mar Mattai fled to Mount Alfaf after Julian the Apostate, ruler of the Roman Empire, began to persecute Christians. It was a refuge for Christians who fled persecution and became a place of scholarly learning. It was also a place where some of Rafi's ancestors were buried. Christians in Iraq believe the monastery gave them a special closeness with God.

That closeness was demonstrated by his mother Najeeba (Frangoul) Altaweel sometime around 1940 when she visited the monastery. There she prayed to God to give her another child after Rafi's sister, Salema, had been born. Najeeba had married later in life and having a child at her age was not easy. But she was a woman of faith and soon she found out that her prayers at a monastery so dear to her and generations of Iraqi Christians was soon answered. Soon after her visit, she learned she was pregnant. She had also made a promise when she was there, which was she would not cut the hair of her child for few years if God granted her a child. His baptismal name was Matthew, after the monastery and famous saint. 

After Rafi was born, he would go on to have quite the locks, with his hair growing longer than even his sister's before eventually his mother cut it. Few believed Rafi when he told this story years later, considering his hair issues later in life, but luckily there was a photo of him and his sister that proved otherwise. Mar Mattai would go on to have a special place in Rafi's heart. Years later, he would ask about the monastery's welfare and would fondly tell stories about spending summers there with his family. Christian families, particularly from Mosul, would often sleep in the monastery over the summer months, usually outside in the courtyard. It was also at that beautify monastery on the mountain that the story of Rafi began.