Firm Helps Seniors Jingle Phone Bells

Gabino Estrada hasn’t spoken to his wife since August, but with the help of the San Diego office of Merrill Lynch, he gave it a try on Saturday.

For the 13th year, the investment securities firm invited senior citizens to make telephone calls to their loved ones around the world.

But Estrada, a 67-year-old U.S. military veteran from the Philippines, could only send a message to his wife, Restitota, who lives without a telephone in the remote town of Calasiao.

This will be the first Christmas that Estrada has spent away from his family in nearly 40 years, but he is doing so in the hope that his wife and two children will be able to immigrate to the United States.

“It really hurts to be here,” said Estrada, who was part of the U.S. military effort during World War II to defend the Philippines. “But if I am lucky it will be worth it.”

The telephone disconnected twice before Estrada could finally get through to his nephew, Nelson Maiquiz, to send his season’s greetings.

Estrada gleefully chatted in his native Tagalog, and asked Maiquiz to tell his wife that she should send photographs to complete a petition for her passport. Estrada came to the United States in August and hopes that his wife will be able to join him in the spring, and the rest of his family sometime after that.

About 140 residents of three area senior citizen centers used about 30 telephones in the top-floor office of Merrill Lynch on B Street. Each were given an hour to make as many calls as they wanted to anywhere in the world.

“It’s fun to see people call others they haven’t seen for a while over long distances,” said Heather Tyrrell, operations coordinator at the firm and one of the organizers of the calling program.

The firm’s La Jolla office plans a similar program before Christmas, Tyrrell said, as do other Merrill Lynch offices around the country.