Hello!
Today was my first visit to T.H.E. Seniors and I'm representing my group, Ai Jia, Andy, Teng Swee and myself to write our reflections here! So we had the honour to be led by senior Chaur Ann (HAHA) to visit Mdm. Tan. She welcomed us warmly when we greeted her, then we offered to help her do some household chores despite her considerably clean house because we expected some hard-to-reach areas. The guys swept and mopped the floor and cleaned the windows and doors while Ai Jia and I had the luxury to just sit and chat with Mdm. Tan haha! We got to know she wakes up between 5 - 6 am everyday and goes downstairs to exercise for 1 hour (very healthy 82-year-old!), she had many jobs when she was young but stopped working at 21 when she got married (good life!), she had 7 siblings (1 brother 6 sisters) and she was very fortunate that her father didn't give any of the girls away like most parents in the past did so everyone lived together for very long and how there was a trend in the past to have 2 gold teeth planted in place of the originals so a lot of youngsters at that time actually did that plus it wasn't expensive at all! But then she got old and had to change her whole set of teeth to fake ones which looked really fake because they were super white and uniform hahaha!
Throughout the 2 hours of chatting with her, we got to know her jovial personality which was extremely influential because it made us feel at ease around her. According to Chaur Ann, we later found out after the visit that Mdm. Tan was quite pessimistic when they initially visited her, blaming herself for being old and useless, which really came as a surprise because there was no trace of that attitude in her today which's great! Although we had awkward pauses in between our conversations because we weren't very proficient in hokkien, I think we managed quite well as we could understand the bulk of what she was trying to tell us and vice versa too. What I personally enjoyed most was the way she laughed because it was a really shy, high-pitched chuckle almost at the end of every sentence which's super cute! Below are the photos we took together with her, including senior Jeraldine's group who came a while after.
The end of the visit made me reflect a lot on how simple gestures like a greeting could brighten up someone's day; at the same time make oneself feel appreciated by how he/she has made a difference to someone's life, no matter how small. I hope Mdm. Tan had as much fun as we did. I believe the inspiration we got from her - seeing how contented and cheerful she is even at this ripen age - was more than what we could've asked for. I really enjoyed every part of the visit today and I look forward to future visits to the other elderly; I'm certain everyone in the group feels the same!
Cheers,
Joelle
Today was my first visit to T.H.E. Seniors and I'm representing my group, Ai Jia, Andy, Teng Swee and myself to write our reflections here! So we had the honour to be led by senior Chaur Ann (HAHA) to visit Mdm. Tan. She welcomed us warmly when we greeted her, then we offered to help her do some household chores despite her considerably clean house because we expected some hard-to-reach areas. The guys swept and mopped the floor and cleaned the windows and doors while Ai Jia and I had the luxury to just sit and chat with Mdm. Tan haha! We got to know she wakes up between 5 - 6 am everyday and goes downstairs to exercise for 1 hour (very healthy 82-year-old!), she had many jobs when she was young but stopped working at 21 when she got married (good life!), she had 7 siblings (1 brother 6 sisters) and she was very fortunate that her father didn't give any of the girls away like most parents in the past did so everyone lived together for very long and how there was a trend in the past to have 2 gold teeth planted in place of the originals so a lot of youngsters at that time actually did that plus it wasn't expensive at all! But then she got old and had to change her whole set of teeth to fake ones which looked really fake because they were super white and uniform hahaha!
Throughout the 2 hours of chatting with her, we got to know her jovial personality which was extremely influential because it made us feel at ease around her. According to Chaur Ann, we later found out after the visit that Mdm. Tan was quite pessimistic when they initially visited her, blaming herself for being old and useless, which really came as a surprise because there was no trace of that attitude in her today which's great! Although we had awkward pauses in between our conversations because we weren't very proficient in hokkien, I think we managed quite well as we could understand the bulk of what she was trying to tell us and vice versa too. What I personally enjoyed most was the way she laughed because it was a really shy, high-pitched chuckle almost at the end of every sentence which's super cute! Below are the photos we took together with her, including senior Jeraldine's group who came a while after.
The end of the visit made me reflect a lot on how simple gestures like a greeting could brighten up someone's day; at the same time make oneself feel appreciated by how he/she has made a difference to someone's life, no matter how small. I hope Mdm. Tan had as much fun as we did. I believe the inspiration we got from her - seeing how contented and cheerful she is even at this ripen age - was more than what we could've asked for. I really enjoyed every part of the visit today and I look forward to future visits to the other elderly; I'm certain everyone in the group feels the same!
Cheers,
Joelle
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