First up, our group of 5 visited Mr Tay. It was my first time visiting Mr Tay; he lives just a few units away from our dear commander Mdm Cheong. Prior to this visit, I've heard many stories about him from my fellow volunteers who visited him before. He is partially blind and described as lonely and emo, and every visit would include bringing him to the kopitiam downstairs for coffee and a breather. In addition, he would need newspapers because apparently he uses them to clean himself.
Things were going smoothly at Mr Tay's place. We were chatting with him (I tried my best to speak in proper hokkien because I am bad at it haha) and keeping him company. However, the ration delivery was late; usually Mr Tay would receive his packed lunch at 10-11am but this time it came at 12+ (there was a delay in the logistics). Inevitably Mr Tay felt very hungry, but refused our offer of bringing him downstairs for lunch because he may end up missing the packed lunch delivery and spending unnecessary money on food, and also not to trouble us. He asked us to help him call his sister on the phone. On the first try she did not pick up. Mr Tay grew even more frustrated and when his sister finally called back, he took it out on her angrily through the phone. The packed lunch finally came, then we split up into smaller groups: Pheng Heong and I would bring Mr Tay downstairs for coffee, while Chunhai would lead his group to Mdm Cheong's place.
Mr Tay finally had his coffee after some persuasion. His special order is to add a few chunks of butter into his kopi, and it smelt very nice to be honest hahaha. During this coffee session, Mr Tay was very quiet, probably trying to simmer down after feeling angry earlier on. Furthermore, he woke up at 5am that day, so he's kind of tired as well. Once he's done, we sent him back and proceeded to Mdm Cheong's. And as usual, he would thank us repeatedly and remind us to come back to visit him again soon.
My thoughts after my first visit to Mr Tay's place was that in such a situation that happened was unexpected, and there's only this much that us volunteers can do, to keep him company and try to appease him. I felt that we did an okay job, because we have to understand that the elderly can get very impatient and stubborn at times and they need an outlet to rant or vent their frustrations. Hence when a similar incident were to occur again, we are better prepared to deal with it and act accordingly.
Anyways when we reached Mdm Cheong's the other group was done with helping with the chores. She was showing them photos of her that were taken at Touch's activities.
Actually it took me close to a year before learning about Mdm Cheong's past: she was diagnosed with depression after her husband's death. She was pretty down until she started attending events at Touch centre and she picked herself up ever since. Very hard to tell because she's always cheerful and optimistic, and always lending a helping a helping hand to other elderly.
And that's about it for the official visit on the 18th August. Every visit is a new experience, and I hope to inculcate that in the new volunteers who are joining us in the next few weeks during the orientation visits. Looking forward to it! :)
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