PHP - Text Value Returning 0?

SELECT i.item_id, 
		         i.title, 
		         i.price,
		         i.p_and_p,
		         SUM(i.price + i.p_and_p) AS `total_price`,
		         i.listing,
		         i.condition,
		         i.start_date_time,
		         i.listing_duration,
		         CONVERT_TZ(DATE_ADD(i.start_date_time, INTERVAL concat(i.listing_duration) DAY), '+00:00', u.time_zone) AS `end_date_time`
		  FROM items i
		  LEFT JOIN sub_categories sc ON sc.sub_category_id = i.sub_category_id
		  LEFT JOIN categories c ON c.name = 'test'
		  JOIN users u
		  WHERE u.username = 'Destramic'
		  AND i.start_date_time < NOW() 
		  AND DATE_ADD(i.start_date_time, INTERVAL concat(i.listing_duration) DAY) >= NOW()

Browser HTTP client makes a request to a HTTP web server which makes a HTTP cURL request to a HTTP REST API which initiates a ReactPHP socket client to make a request to a socket server, and the socket server script eventually execute the following method:

    public function executeSpecificRequestCommand(array $data):bool {
        $status = $this->doSomething($data);
        return $status; //{success: $status} will be returned to the socket client
    }

All is good until doSomething()  takes a lot of time and results in a cURL error between the HTTP web server and HTTP REST API.  For this particular case, the task isn't meant to provide immediate feedback to the user, but to do some work and update the database, and as such, my desire is to return true status and then perform the work instead of extending the cURL timeout.

One option is to ran some process in the background and return status, but I don't think doing so is really right.  Using a queue seems excessive as I am already decoupled via the socket.  As such, I will probably just add some logic between the initial $string->on('data') and this executeSpecificRequestCommand() method to determine whether the success message should be returned before or after the method is complete.

Before doing so, however, I would like to know if there is a more appropriate approach to this scenario.  It appears that maybe a child process or a deferred might be appropriate, but am not sure whether I am going down the wrong path.

function displayMenuCategories($menu_category){
        $display_menu ="";
        $category_id =  $menu_category['menu_cat_id'];
        $display_menu .=   "<div class='menu_cat'>{$menu_category['menu_cat_name']}</div><br>\n";
        if(!empty($menu_category['menu_cat_desc'])) {
        $display_menu .= "<div class='menu_desc'>{$menu_category['menu_cat_desc']}</div>\n";
        }


    $category_info = array("display" => $display_menu, "category_id" => $category_id );

    return $category_info;
}

$left_menu_categories // Is the array that contains all the menu categories 

foreach($left_menu_categories as $left_menu_category){

    $get_categories =  displayMenuCategories($left_menu_category);

}
var_dump($get_categories);

<?php
error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set("display_errors", 1);
require("../PHPMailer/class.phpmailer.php");
include 'includes.php';
        $mail = new PHPMailer;
        $subject = $_POST['subject'];
        $text = $_POST['newsletterBody'];
        $mail->IsSMTP();                                      // Set mailer to use SMTP
        $mail->Host = 'localhost';  // Specify main and backup server
        $mail->Port = '465';
        $mail->SMTPAuth = true;                               // Enable SMTP authentication
        $mail->Username = '**EMAIL_USERNAME**';                            // SMTP username
        $mail->Password = '**EMAIL_PASSWORD**';
        $mail->SMTPAuth = true;
        $mail->SMTPSecure = 'ssl';                            // Enable encryption, 'ssl' also accepted

        $mail->From = '**EMAIL_ADDRESS**';
        $mail->FromName = '**EMAIL_NAME';
        
    
        $email = getEmail("62", $DBH);
        
        
        foreach ($email as $newEmail)
                {
                    $addEmail = $newEmail->email;
                    $mail->AddAddress($addEmail);
                    $DBH = null;
                    $addEmail = "";
                }
        

        $mail->AddReplyTo('**EMAIL_REPLY_TO**', '**EMAIL_REPLY_TO_NAME**');
    
        $mail->WordWrap = 50;                                 // Set word wrap to 50 characters
        $mail->IsHTML(true);                                  // Set email format to HTML

        $mail->Subject = $subject;
        $mail->Body    = $text;
        $mail->AltBody = $text;

        if(!$mail->Send()) {
           echo 'Message could not be sent.';
           echo 'Mailer Error: ' . $mail->ErrorInfo;
           exit;
        }
        
            $insertSql = "INSERT INTO newsletter_log (date, title, body) VALUES (?,?,?)";
            $insertParams = array(time(), $subject, $text);
            $newsletterAdd = $DBH->prepare($insertSql);
            $newsletterAdd->execute($insertParams)
        
        echo 'Message has been sent <a href='newsletter.php'>Return back</a>";

?>

function getEmail($inId, $DBH)
    {
        if (!empty($inId))
        {
            $blogstmt = $DBH->prepare("SELECT email_addr FROM newsletter_emails WHERE id = :userId");
            $blogstmt->bindParam(":userId", $inId);
            $blogstmt->execute();
        }
        else
        {
            $blogstmt = $DBH->prepare("SELECT * FROM newsletter_emails");
            $blogstmt->execute();
        }
    
        $postArray = array();
        
        $results = $blogstmt->fetchAll(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC);
        foreach($results as $row){
            $myPost = new nlEmails($row["id"], $row['email'], $DBH);
            array_push($postArray, $myPost);
        }
        
        return $postArray;
        $DBH = null;
    }
 
class nlEmails {
    public $id;
    public $email;
    
    function __construct($inId=null, $inEmail=null, $DBH)
    {
        if(!empty($inId))
        {
            $this->id = $inId;
        }
        if(!empty($inEmail))
        {
        $this->email = $inEmail;
        }
    }
}