NYT: New dad faces fatherhood alone

This is heartbreaking: a Sri Lankan-born legal permanent resident in New York City lost his Taiwanese-born naturalized citizen wife after she died, inexplicably and unexpectedly, weeks after their son was born. His mother-in-law can't move in to help because she needs to stay in a nursing home to qualify for Social Security benefits, the couple's friends and co-workers from her bank job and his sandwich shop job are helping all they can, but--here's the kicker: the U.S. government won't approve a tourist visa for the new dad's sister (he has no family here) because she can't prove she'll go back and because helping take care of her newborn nephew constitutes childcare and thus could be construed as work (that she'd be taking away from an American). Tai Ling Feng, Indika Arachchige, and baby Arachchige, you are in our thoughts.

[via Angry Asian Man]