GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
Friends and relatives of 14-year-old Leilani Emosi lined up to have their heads shaved yesterday at the Emosi home in Ewa. Leilani, seen here shaving her father Esi Emosi's head, was recently rediagnosed with leukemia. Her family and church friends had their heads shaved in support for Leilani.
Strike not affecting
foundation of familyFriends and relatives shave
their heads in solidarity with
a girl who faces leukemia
Esi and Valeri Emosi have been laid off, their jobs victims of strikes at the state's two largest concrete companies.
But meeting mortgage payments and paying for living expenses aren't heading up the Ewa couple's list of worries.
Last week, medical tests showed that after five years in remission, their daughter's leukemia has returned. Fourteen-year-old Leilani Emosi checks in today at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children and is set to begin chemotherapy tomorrow.
"The biggest thing on my mind is not so much the financial, but my daughter's survival," said Leilani's father, Esi. "The main thing right now is to focus on her. ... All the other things are secondary. Those are just things."
With no savings and no income since mid-February, the Emosis aren't sure how they'll pay for the treatment, expected to take two years to complete, that doctors are prescribing for their daughter. Leilani is covered under her father's medical insurance, which could expire if he doesn't resume work soon.
Some 144 workers at Ameron Hawaii and 67 at Hawaiian Cement went on strike the first week of February, crimping Oahu's booming building industry and prompting dozens of layoffs at construction companies. Talks between Hawaiian Cement and Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers Local 996 are set to resume at 5 p.m. today.
Valeri, an accounting administrator at HK Builders Inc., got laid off first. On Feb. 9, just days after the strikes began, her boss told her there was no way he could keep her on the payroll with no building being done.
Less than a week later, Esi received word that his employer, Foundations Hawaii Inc., had no more jobs for the veteran carpenter.
GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
The Emosi family sat yesterday in their Ewa home. Kawehi, mother Valeri, Leilani and father Esi are pulling together as Leilani prepares to undergo chemotherapy for leukemia. Esi and Valeri were laid off due to work stoppages caused by the strike.
The Emosis, still struggling with the shock of their layoffs, learned of their daughter's illness Thursday.
"We were in disbelief," Valeri said. "When we went home ... we sat down on the couch and said, 'What are we going to do financially,' and we don't know."
Leilani had been showing "weird symptoms" and having dizzy spells for some weeks before being diagnosed, her mother said. The Emosis chalked the problems up to hormones, but decided to get the ninth-grader checked out as a precaution.
"My wife gets laid off. My daughter relapses. ... I didn't know what to think," Esi said. "It's the thought that you have the possibility of losing your child and the stress that comes with it. It's just trying to be positive and going through this."
Esi and Valeri said they're keeping strong with the help of family and friends and that they've been through this before, when Leilani was 8.
But last time around, said Valeri: "We didn't have a little girl. We have a 5-year-old and we have a mortgage." Both Leilani and her sister, who is in kindergarten, attend Lanakila Baptist School.
At Pearlridge Center yesterday, Leilani was getting professional pictures taken so that her family could remember what her long, black hair looked like before chemotherapy and radiation.
Later in the day, dozens of family members gathered at the Emosi home for a dinner and Leilani, along with seven of the family's close friends, shaved their heads.
Just before last night's dinner and get-together, Leilani was upbeat. She said she wasn't worried about her upcoming hospital stay, which could last from two weeks to a month.
"Sometimes, it feels like it's not really happening. Like I'm in a dream," she said. "I know I'm in good hands. ... There's really no point in getting all worried about it."
Pam Deprau, a longtime friend of the Emosis who has also been laid off because of the strikes, said the family's story has made her realize that her own worries are miniature in comparison.
"That just put everything in perspective," she said. "Everything seemed small in relation."
Deprau's husband, Taylor, could also lose his job as a foreman if the strike persists. The two have a 6-year-old and mortgage payments on a new home to think about, but Deprau is setting time aside to help raise money for the Emosi family and said bank accounts for Leilani are being opened at the Hawaii State Federal Credit Union and Bank of Hawaii.
"If it comes down to it, we will have to beg," Valeri said. "I have my moments. ... (But) I have my faith in my daughter. I have faith in my friends."
Despite their hardships, the Emosis aren't faulting the concrete workers for walking picket lines.
"I am behind them 100 percent," Valeri said. "We just hope the strike will end soon."
