My name is Ella and I grew up on Meadowbrook Drive. Frank (and his wife Annabel) have been a consistent presence for many of the families on Meadowbrook Drive and in Tarrytown, starting as far back as 2003, doing various landscaping, home improvement, and cleaning projects.

Frank has completed many large landscaping and home improvement projects for my family over the last 20 years. He has always been kind, dependable, honest, and hard working. He keeps an eye on things when he is working, watching out for the neighbors and neighborhood at large. He’s a friend to our family as well.

I am writing to share about a tragic dental incident that Frank experienced, and to ask for your financial support to help his family pay for the medical procedures required to fix what went wrong. I have been disturbed and saddened to hear about the significant physical and emotional pain he and his family have been experiencing as a result of this.

In Frank’s words, this is what happened to him (written in early January):

“My name is Frank Almeida and I’ve been working in Tarrytown for more than 23 years as a landscaper and serving the community. I recently endured a bad experience on July 21st of last year. I had some dental work, including implants and temporary teeth, that went very wrong. On October 1st I went in for a regular check-up since it was going to take 6 months for the implants to start coming out of the gums. The dentist had forgotten where he had placed the implants, and started guessing where they were, cutting my gums. I was in severe pain at the time, bleeding, and was sent home.

I could no longer trust this dentist to finish the job. Due to this experience, I have great difficulty eating and speaking, I have lost self-esteem, and have a lower quality of life overall. I recently went to see a wonderful dentist. She said I will need some work done on my upper jaw, and that I will need to have the implants removed because they were placed improperly, so that they can start over. I am asking for your help and contribution. I will kindly appreciate it.”

Frank’s family saved and spent $10,000 for him to obtain these dentures. He now has done procedures with two other dentists who are helping fix what happened to him, on February 16th and March 2nd. The total cost of these procedures, including additional implants he will need to complete them, is $4,625. He is going to have a couple more procedures in April, to get dentures made and a bone shaving, that should make the total approximately $6,000.

I am writing to ask if you would be willing to support Frank and his family as they attempt to pay these medical bills, especially given all that he and his wife Annabel have done for our neighborhood over the past 23 years.