I met Grace 12 years ago while on a two-week vacation in the Philippines from the touring company of Billy Elliot, visiting my cousin Jeff, who had lived in the mountain city of Baguio for five years. We became friends through one of Jeff’s mutual friends and kept in contact via the Internet over the years, with me returning to visit intermittently. In 2014, a huge typhoon devastated her village. Wanting to help, I bought some land and built a small house for Grace and her family. Our friendship grew into love, and we married in the Philippines in 2018. The plan was for her to join me in New York, but then Covid happened, and we were separated for three years due to travel bans. Since then, we’ve resumed our long-distance relationship, with me spending significant time there each year.


Grace and her sister Raquel, her two brothers Aweng and Arnold, his wife, and their five children are a sweet and humble family living in the small seaside village of Bachao in Leyte, Philippines. They are very dear to me. Grace, the youngest of the siblings, never knew her mother, who died a month after she was born. Despite growing up in poverty, Grace was a happy child who helped her father farm a small patch of land in the tropical mountains near her village. She worked hard in school, earning gold stars for her penmanship and citizen medals for good behavior.


Grace’s childhood changed abruptly when her father took her out of school and sent her to Manila to work as a domestic in the home of a boutique owner. As she grew older, she worked in the store as a sales girl, sending her earnings home to support her family. Grace has always been resilient, giving, and positive, despite the hardships she has faced. She loves her family, her village, and her country deeply.


Now, Grace is facing a medical emergency. She has acute appendicitis and needs an emergency appendectomy, and possibly gall bladder removal. Without insurance and with her family unable to afford the surgery, she is in urgent need of help. I have supported Grace and her family for years from New York, but as a senior citizen, I have not been able to work much recently and cannot cover this expense. Your support will help pay for Grace’s surgery and hospital care, giving her a chance to recover and bringing hope to her family. Any help you can give would mean the world to us. Thank you for your kindness and support.