Firsts

24th May was my first visit with T.H.E.S. During the visit, we visited Mdm C. My group comprised of Lily and 3 newcomers including myself.  It seemed like Mdm C was expecting us as she had already planned what she wanted us to help her with. She even prepared rags that she wanted us to use. It was my first time having such close interaction with elderly, other than my own grandparents of course and honestly, I wasn’t very comfortable at first. I mentally crafted some topics or questions to break the ice and to start some conversations with Mdm C. It took me quite a while to even think of a question. However, in the midst of trying hard to consolidate my thoughts and plan what to say, I saw that Lily, a much more experienced volunteer had already engaged her in a conversation and within minutes, all of us were laughing along with Mdm C’s responses. I could see that Mdm C was very happy to converse with Lily and share her stories. It was then that I realized, at times, it is not about how perfectly constructed your sentences or questions are that will determine how a conversation would turn out.

I am sure that the elderly would never care or judge if you spoke in broken strings of Dialect or Mandarin but rather, what they want to feel is the sincerity you have and whether or not you are genuinely interested in what they can share with you.  Simple topics like asking Mdm C how to cook certain dishes or complementing how she looked in the photos of her in her younger days was more than sufficient to keep her smiling throughout the entire session.

I am truly inspired by many of the volunteers and the great lengths they would go to make sure that the elderly are happy. I was also blessed by one of the elderly who had prepared a birthday cake to celebrate the birthday of one of the volunteers. He has so much to give with the little he had and I really have so much to learn from all of them.

Regine 

10 MAY 回家走走

Hello!!!!!!! 

It has been a long long time since I last blogged. Good to be back! I really miss the elderly alot :'( It always feels comfortable and good to be back, to see all the new faces and of course to have short catch up with the old ones. I was grouped with Jiemin and we were assigned to visit Mdm C.M. and Mdm T.A.K.

We went to visit Mdm T.A.K. first. We swept and mopped her floor while talking to her. Topics covered were: jia ba buay(if she has eaten), whether the food was nice, the hot weather and how bathing just doesn't help, her broom bristles are coming out and littering her floor, Mothers' day celebration by TOUCH, how she prefer to fan herself rather than using electronic fan AND SHE REMEMBERED how I screamed and scared her when I saw a cockroach after lifting up a cloth. She was like ,"Oh it was you!" I still remembered how I scared her and other volunteers. But it was a natural reaction :p Whenever I see the tap at the elderly's house, I would laugh to myself. The special design of the tap only leave you with two scenarios: 1) you fill the pail with water 2) you make your back wet because you turned on the shower accidentally. Because the second scenario had occurred to me too frequently, I would instinctively move aside whenever I on the tap XD. After we were done with the chores, we sat down and ask if she remembered going to 新世界 last time. Her eyes lighted up at that topic=) She remembered she always went there to 看大戏 and shop for clothes. She said there were plenty of food stalls also, especially the yong tau foo stall which only charges 10 cents for 3 ingredients! She said in the past there were so many roadside stalls that she was able to shop from Kallang to Chinatown with her friends when they were not working. I really loved how enthusiastic she was when she was telling us all these=')

Next we visited Mdm C.M. AS usual we laughed first before talking. She looked more alert today as compared to the last time I saw her(yayyyyy!!!). But her memory is really failing. She tend to forget where she put her keys and had to search for it. I think she needs encouragement from us whenever this happens because she would to call herself "siao" when she couldn't remember where she left her keys. She taught us how to people-watch and was beaming with pride when we praised her about her cactus. When we asked her if she remembered about 新世界, she said she do! But forgot what she did over there. I am really thankful for Mdm C.M.
It must be scary to keep forgetting about things, to forget the people around you. But she never let all these
fears stop her from smiling. Her smile is still as infectious and cute. Thank Mdm C.M. For being so brave
and such an inspiration!

Sheng Xian