Help Ben Clemente's family

Aloha,

One of Foster Tower Ohana's long-time employees, Ben Clemente, needs our help. Ben has been working at Foster Tower for four years as a security guard and for three years in maintenance. At the end of November, Ben's mom's—Adelina's—oncologist delivered some very bad news to the family: Adelina's lung cancer had metastasized to the brain. The doctors gave her a poor prognosis: the cancer was terminal, leaving Adelina with a few weeks to a few months to live. Ben immediately bought airplane tickets to honor her mom's last wish: to fly back to the Philippines where they were born. Ben and his mom left for the Philippines the day after Thanksgiving. This is why you have not seen Ben around for a while.

The family's plan was for Adelina to meet her granddaughter and daughter-in-law for the first time. Ben got married 4 years ago in the Philippines, and his daughter, Aubrey, was born 3 years ago, but the slow immigration process (coupled with the COVID-related shutdowns) prohibited his wife and daughter to come to the US to live with Ben and Ben's parents.

As if Ben's family's story wasn't heartbreaking enough already, we found out that Ben's father could not travel back with Ben and Adelina because of financial reasons. He needed to continue work to be able to pay their rent. He planned to join Ben, Adelina, and Ben's wife and daughter on December 22 to spend the holidays together for the first time.

After quarantining, Ben's mom finally met her granddaughter and daughter-in-law for the first time. Unfortunately, they only had four short days together before Adelina passed away. It pains me to say that Ben's father missed being with his wife during her last days on Earth and missed her funeral due to financial hardship. No one should be forced to make these economic decisions, especially not people who work hard—cleaning commercial facilities—day in and out, people you can count on, and people whose paychecks only stretch month-to-month.

At this point, Ben is determined to complete his wife's and daughter's immigration process. He needs to stay in the Philippines and help his wife secure the final steps in the process: the interview and medical tests. They have completed every other requirement already. Ben's wife has even proactively taken a test to convert her nursing certification to meet American standards so she can immediately become a productive member of our society.

Since Ben took a temporary leave of absence from both of his jobs, he has no income to support his family’s unification process over the next few months. They need our help. Ben is not one to ask for help, and he has never done so before. I am humbly asking you on behalf of Ben and Foster Tower's staff to please consider helping one of our own. Ben has been here for us for years. It is a wonderful opportunity to return the favor. Any help you can offer will be very much appreciated.