Hi, I am Jocelyn, a volunteer at T.H.E. Seniors.

To share a little segment of my visit on 18 August, let's start from our visit with Mdm Tan. 

Together with Yi an, Eng soon and Criss, we went to Mdm Tan's house. We did no cleaning because - like what one of the volunteers said: Her house is so clean you can roll around on the floor! 

Just as we sat down, Mdm Tan told us to help her put thread into her needles; she would need these as and when there are holes in her clothes, etc.

(And I thought it was quite cute to see 3 tough guys doing this needle work! Haha)

While putting thread into the needles, we held small conversations about the vegetables distribution, about her cough. She then shared with us that she had cut her finger when she was trying to cut her nails...

The font colour of the words of which you've been reading thus far probably represents ONLY to a small extent the difficulty Mdm Tan has with sight.

With her head hung low, she shared how useless it feels to lose (partial of) her eyesight. She gritted her teeth and clasped her hands tight. I could feel the immense sense of sadness, a sense of loss, maybe. I felt it so hard as if it was my own pain and for a moment, I was lost for words. I did not want to give just a casual response to trivialize her loss. Yet I did not want to dwell deeper and make the atmosphere too heavy.

The room was silent for a while too... before Yi an, once again, poured some humor into the air by playing with his (huge) scissors and talking about other random topics. Then Mdm Tan smiled and laughed again. 

It may not permanently remove her sorrows, but I believe, even for one split second, the humor did brighten up Mdm Tan's day and the laughter came from her heart. (Her laughter is really cute! If you've not heard it before, it sounds like... Like she's playing hide-and-seek and she caught you! There are elements of excitement and mischievousness. I bet she must be a fun person to hang out with when she was schooling! - and actually now too. She enjoys talking about her life!) :)

A while later we were supposed to leave, but I felt reluctant. I thought: what would the house be like after we close the door? It will be back to Mdm Tan being alone at home. Back to silence. And that thought killed me.

As a volunteer, how does it feel like to say byebye? "Just say bye and go to the next house!"?
As an elderly, how would it feel like to see the volunteers leave?

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On a lighter note, of course, we went to Mdm Ho's. As usual, sweeping, mopping, un-dusty-ing the mats, and cleaning fans. We sat there for quite a while after the cleaning, listening to her talk about all sorts of topics - from the government to the people living in Blks 61 & 62 to the past and present volunteers.

It is really interesting how Mdm Ho remembers her volunteers - every single one, she said. She remembers us by the places we live in and our family background. For example, she refers me as the girl who stays in Ang Mo Kio, whose dad would fetch her here every Sat, and whose mom would complain because she is not doing household chores in her own house but in elderly's houses.
Such details are keyed into her memory, and everyone is an unique individual volunteer to her.

The theme of this blog post is probably this: to switch your position and imagine what it feels like to be the elderly. In Mdm Ho's story, we have learnt that as much as the elderly mean a lot to us as beneficiaries we visit weekly, we actually mean a lot to them too. Don't ever belittle the power of the 2/3 hours every week.

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I am blessed to have gotten to know these elderly! .....But sorry ah, I am not contented. I want to get to know more about them, get them to share with us more more more about their stories and learn about their life experiences! And the only way to optimize my learnings is to attend these lessons regularly.

Every (alternate) Saturdays 10:30am-1:30pm. Are you coming with me? :)