21st of July was my second time visiting the elderly with T.H.E Seniors. On this session, we made visits to Mdn Chua, Mdn Cheong and Mr Tay. Mdn Chua and Mr Tay were familiars as I had visited them on my first time here; nonetheless, the experience was different. Mdn Chua was nursing a cold she contracted just 1 day ago when we visited her house. We swept and mopped the floor and wiped the windows clean. After some time chatting to her, I saw a side of her I had never seen before. She took out the stack of poker cards that one of the volunteers had given her as a gift and played card games which involved only one player. It may not seem much but we really have to take our hats off to her as her reaction time was at times faster than us in the game. It made me think about what she often says which roughly translates to: when people grow old, they become useless. Looking at her, I wanted to tell her that it really isn’t true. They may be limited in their movements and reaction times, but as long as their minds, bodies and spirits are still fighting on in life, they aren’t useless at all. 

We visited Mdn Cheong next and for the first time, I scrubbed a toilet clean. Our group jokingly mentioned Mdn Cheong as “The Commander” before entering her house. But while being directed to do work, I could see that none of us were doing the chores begrudgingly. I don’t enjoy cleaning toilets in general and this experience made me reflect upon how volunteers challenge their own limits in small ways through their volunteering experience. In a way, volunteering not only changes the lives of the beneficiaries but also does well to the joy bringers. My volunteering experience changed my lives in the smallest aspects but they mean something to me. I thought about how I lost the passion for giving to society and I’m glad I found it back (: 


Our last household for the day was Mr Tay and he was in a lot of pain as he had taken ill recently. We brought him out of the house to get some fresh air and collected his letters for him from the mailbox. He was very stressed out by the bills even though they were waived by the government due to the financial package given out in lieu with The Budget this year. We tried to reassure his fears of being unable to afford his daily expenses but he still seemed depressed. I hope the upcoming event can bring a smile to his face. On the other hand, I was relieved and happy to find out that Mdn Cheong runs errands on his behalf such as buying of bread. I remember on my first visit, Mr Tay mentioned that he had no interaction with the neighbors as he can’t see and hence cannot converse with them. Such help extended to Mr Tay signal a gradual integration into the neighborhood to me as a bystander.


Sorry for the wordy post guys! I’ve been enjoying myself at each T.H.E visit and I thank everyone for welcoming me into your volunteer network (: 


 Yi'an