Hello everyone!

Can't believe this is actually my first time blogging when I've gone for quite a fair amount of visits already heh :)

So anyway, my group, consisting of Rui Fang, Valerie and myself, were supposed to visit Mdm Lim. By the way, just gotta mention that there was just something so touching about seeing 40 volunteers with the same passion turning up on a rainy Saturday morning, regardless of how far Kallang is from their homes (it's crazy far from my place hahahaha) to visit the elderly.

Ok back to the visit. So I say we were 'supposed' to go and visit Mdm Lim, because eventually we never did. WE COULDN'T FIND HER :( I understand another group faced the same issue a few weeks back? So for those who may not be familiar with all of our elderly yet (don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to know them soon enough if you're a new volunteer!) or are reading this blog for the first time cos you clicked some links and eventually ended up here (but I hope after reading all the posts you'll be encouraged to come join us!), Mdm Lim is one of our more mobile ah mas, so she's all over the place. She doesn't like staying at home cos she says it can get very stuffy, and so she likes to sit at the void deck cos she says it's more windy downstairs. She usually sits there the entire day, from the time when we gather before the visits till after we leave. But this time she wasn't there. Apparently she was sick/injured and so she stayed home, but when we went to her place, her door was closed, and no matter how we knocked, pressed the doorbell (which I suspect isn't working) and called out to her, the door didn't open. Then we went downstairs to search for her at the void deck, the next block, and even the coffeeshop where Mr Tay always has his buttercino. But we still couldn't find her. After going back up to her place to check again, we decided that maybe she was sleeping and couldn't hear us calling and knocking on the door, or maybe she'd gone out with her friends, and thus we went to join Mr Tay and Li Jia's group at the coffeeshop!

I've visited Mr Tay many times already, however it was Valerie's and Rui Fang's first time visiting him, and seeing for themselves the legendary buttercino, of which they'd previously only heard of. We did the usual stuff with Mr Tay - get him his buttercino, open the letter box for him and help him buy stuff (this time it was assorted canned drinks to prepare for the coming CNY).

But this time Mr Tay seemed especially depressed. It's not my first time seeing him so upset, and every time he's like that, we'd just try to take his mind off his pains and talk to him about happier things, like the antics he pulled off when he was schooling (he said he once peed in his teacher's cup and the teacher unknowingly drank the pee), his karate skills (he refused to comment on whether guys or girls were better) and other things. This time round, Li Jia suggested we sing CNY songs for him since CNY's approaching, and we got him to sing Gong Xi Gong Xi with us :)

In times like this, I always wonder if there's anything more that we can do for him. Personally, I always find it the hardest to say goodbye to Mr Tay (not that it's not hard to say goodbye to the other elderly) because he always seems so sad to see us go (Mdm Tan as well). For elderly like Mr Tay and Mdm Tan who can't really see well, us volunteers may be one of the only contacts they have with the outside world since they don't really get visitors and can't go out without assistance. Mr Tay says he'd love to drink his buttercino more than once a week, but I think it's more about going out and us spending time with him that he would want to have more of. I guess this is one of the reasons why I decided to visit the elderly more often, besides just the official visits. To us, giving up Saturday mornings which we'd otherwise spend sleeping or slacking may not seem like much, but I believe our small actions really mean a lot to the elderly.

Swee Fen brought up a very interesting point - our current batch of volunteers visit quite regularly so the elderly are getting quite used to us going to visit them every week, instead of once every two weeks, but what happens if the next batch of volunteers don't visit as often? Will the elderly be disappointed because we brought their hopes up?

As I mentioned above, it was so touching to see so many volunteers turn up for this visit. Let's all remember our passion and keep up the visits! Many thanks to all the volunteers who come week in week out, tirelessly spending time with the elderly! I'm sure we can all derive strength and energy from the smiles on their faces :)

- Jeraldine :)