On 27th October, I visited Mr. Lee along with Kah Suan, Joscelin, Luting and Yu Lin! We first spotted Mr. Lee at the void deck where we assembled into our groups. After dispersing, we headed up to Mr. Lee’s flat as he had already gone up. Being relatively new volunteers, this was our maiden visit to Mr. Lee’s flat and hence, we were unsure of the exact location on that floor. As soon as we spotted him in his flat, we began exclaiming excitedly and it drove Mr. Lee into a slight frenzy as he had taken off his shirt and was parading around in his mini shorts :P

Mr. Lee quickly put on a shirt and opened the door, inviting us in warmly. We stood in front of his pictures and began looking in awe. Mr. Lee disappeared for a short moment before reappearing with a short stick that looks like a cane. He immediately took to pointing at the pictures with the stick and telling us the stories behind each picture while we stood there with our bags the whole visit T.T At times, we asked Mr. Lee if he would like to sit and chat with us but he turned us down heartily and continued with more stories.

Soon after he finished his stories behind the pictures, we tried introducing ourselves to him and I’m glad that he is able to remember my name (although he mispronounces it hahaha). We also managed to have a look at Mr. Lee’s legendary birthday cake from last year! As we saw Jeremy passed a microphone to Mr. Lee earlier on, we persuaded him to sing for us. He told us that he rarely sings at home but would go down for singing sessions with his friends whenever there are such activities held by Touch. Though he rejected us that day, he promised to sing the next visit after some preparations. Do get him to sing!

As usual, from the accounts of the other volunteers, Mr. Lee showed us his phone messages from Yinmin. Alas, we discovered that he did not know how to reply to messages. Hence, my group promised to do him a guide on hanyu pinyin and teach him how to use it to construct smses the next visit. On a side note, it struck me that there might be too much emphasis placed on giving these elderly things that we have and they don’t. Perhaps, more focus could be given on teaching and equipping them with skills to fully utilize what they currently have. I feel that we should enhance the elderly’s capacity to support themselves instead of piling them with handouts that they have no use for or already have. (For example, Mr. Tay has numerous toilet rolls and soap bars in his house :O)

It was one of my best volunteering visits thus far as I could finally hold a proper conversation with the elderly. All in all, Mr. Lee exudes enthusiasm and positivity towards his life but he has occasional bouts of self-doubt where he felt he was being too naggy. Nevertheless, the whole session proved delightful as we assured him. He repeatedly showed how thankful he was that we do not look down on them though he questions our commitment to volunteering after we graduate. Hope to visit him again the next visit!

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime"

-shurui