Visit to Mdm T’s

Hello everyone!

Last Saturday marks my third visit to the elderly beneficiaries of Kallang TOUCH Seniors’ Activity Centre. Being relatively new here, I haven’t really had the chance to interact with most of the elderly (So far I only interacted with 2 of the elderly, Mr T and Mdm H). Last week, I was grouped together with our fellow CSC volunteers –Clement, Yin Min and Kai Him and we visited our elderly beneficiary, Mdm T.

The first thing that struck me as I entered Mdm T’s house was its cleanliness. Everything there was so organized and clean - food was placed neatly hanging from what seems to be re-shaped clothes hangers (She later confirmed that she made these hangers herself), the furniture were arranged in a nice order and the floor seem to be sparkling clean; Definitely much neater and cleaner as compared to the other elderly beneficiaries’ and my own grandparents’ home. After entering her home, some of us proceeded to perform her household chores first (Mopping, sweeping) before joining the rest of us who were then chatting with Mdm T. From my chat with Mdm T, I find her to be very endearing and optimistic. Never does she fails to give the occasional cheerful chuckle as she told us her experiences from her workplaces during her younger days,  her“ fried rice cooking techniques ”  which she seem so enthusiastic about ,and perhaps the stories about how she obtained the multiple plastic fans she had. Even though she has some vision impairment, thus not being able to see our facial expressions properly when conversing, she never fails to maintain her enthusiasm and the cheerful demeanour throughout the conversations that our group had. Moreover, she was genuinely interested to hold more conversations, always being the constant initiator of interesting conversation that I enjoy being a part of. Sometimes, Mdm T would rush to defend some of our volunteers in instances when jokes are being made amongst ourselves, or tell us not to be offended by her over-enthusiasm in sharing with us her stories. These small actions made me feel that Mdm T has actually built a bond with our volunteers and that she cares for our well-being. I hope that we(future/new/existing volunteers) would continue to care for Mdm T, just like how she cared for us.

That’s all from me. It was a rather meaningful visit to Mdm T’s house and I definitely wish to visit her again soon. Also, I hope to get to know more about our elderly beneficiaries in the weeks to come!

Jie Yang