光明山老人院， 处处有温情。 这句话一点也没错！ 相信在2008年9月13日帮忙的义工都深深感受到了…这群老人家真的很直得我们的扶持和关怀。.遗憾的是Uncle Siew Kai Kuan 已经离开了。还记得他吗？

 

 

在Uncle Siew 那不屈不挠，坚强和乐观的态度感动下的我曾经在2006年写下这些感言。请允许我再次和你们分享：

九月三十日, 欢庆中秋节

让义工感受到节日的气氛

也体会到与老人家相处的喜悦

很开心得到各位长辈的参与

让这个庆祝活动更添意义

也佷难忘你们发自内心的笑容

义工们深感欣慰

这一切将成为你们给予义工们的推动力

我们一起努力让明天会更好!

 当时Uncle Siew读完后....笑咪咪不停的谢谢各位义工花时间陪他们..还说义工才是老人家的推动力! The Evergreeners...我们一定要多多加油哦!!!

 

Cheers

Catherine

 

对一般婴儿来言吃粥是必然的。可是长大后就慢慢对粥产生厌倦。甚至一些成年人也不爱吃粥。本来在楼上休息的Auntie Soo Wong Sum听到有猪肉粥吃后的第一个反应，她说：我累…不过我要下去…我很多年没有吃过猪肉粥了！

 

听了这句话…..再想一想….简简单单的一碗猪肉粥加上几片猪肝是不是很香甜呢?

 

Background

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This was my second time involved in Karaoke at the Home. The first time I was the carefree example acting pedestrian crossing the road; carry umbrella  and nobody notice   etc…hehe   

 

Worries

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It was a very different experience to lead elderly to sing song with us . The worries are most of the elderly’s dialect group is Cantonese ,and their favorites songs may be in 40s, 50s and 60 s which  they are more appreciated.In my experience, most of them dont speak or express much during the normal lesson. Question , how to warm and hit up the karaoke session ?

   

Prep and Commence

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Well , lucky enough we had kitchen’s aunty as usual wearing the apron outfit to start  the session with a couple of nice  Cantonese Songs (majority of elderly are Cantonese ). All or majority elderly were quietly listening and eyes attentive to the screen.

 Next our best host and co- coordinator of every  events, Catherine started to interact  with the few elderly to participle. They  responded well especially the first row elderly . 
 

In the mean time, observed that   the rest of the volunteers behind the stage were tried to fill the gap  and  evenly spread out among the elderly . They were ready to guide the elderly  and encourage them to sing along with us . Great team spirit  .

   

Warmth Up

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At about 3 pm ,  the sky started to cry . I was inspired by the weather to sing the hokkien song “ sky black black “, not sure after completed the song , the elderly and your face turn black black or not , but kept  to yourself if you turned black  : ). The next volunteer is our macho guy  kiwi whom has the strong vocal voice and follow by Cathrine, Joanne , and we had a song sang by Kiwi and Joanne…. Alot of variety …..

 

The atmosphere had warmth up after the few songs. The singing session  kept  flowing  with different language songs and singers ,  nice and sweet voices  like Molly , Jane and Son Daren  , Michael …. .   

   

Michael learn to Rock and elderly goes crazy

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 Our newly born star from EMI;  Michael ( Cui Xian friend) , had touched some of her fans heart , giving flowers to the elderly while singing (hey , if there is best stage performance , I would  give a award to him ).

 

The nice and warmth gesture from Michael must had driven some of the elderly crazy

( don’t imagine that the elderly starts to stand and shout like crazy fans for the idol ). I  had realized some of the elderly started to request song ; and their expression were actually lighten.

 

I encountered one elderly requesting song but too bad not is in the song sheet . There was this elderly who had the vision problem actually expressed to me that song were sang very well.

 

 

Song sang by Uncle Siew and best performance

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It was very encouraging that elderly requesting to sing song. Perhaps was Michael act inspired him to sing , hopefully the elderly can give him flowers (whom Micheal give)  but unfortunately . Michael shall present flower to him too .

. The song Uncle Siew  chosen was a difficult one ( rate of 10/10 ) , as need to catch a lot of breath, he managed to complete the song with the guidance from Cathrine to slow him down .

 

We had actually awarded the karaoke king to Uncle Siew for his best effort and courage.

 

 

Volunteers Effort

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  All the volunteers were supportive and encourage the elderly to clap hands. Also observed volunteers approached and communicated  with elderly . It is the interactive session that keeps the session lively . 

 

As the whole , the session would not have complete without the present of the volunteers help and support.  It would be much much better if every volunteers that day can participate the singing.

 

 End Session  

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 We ended our session with the Grand finale song “ better tomorrow “ but could not find it and finally chosen a song “ understand my heart “  , hopefully all the elderly enjoy the session .

 

Cathrine also gathered feedback from elderly if they would like to have karaoke session next month , and one responsed negatively  : (  , so I guess she had no choice but to follow majority.

 

Joke of the Day

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 While Volunteers  helped the elderly to move to back to their seat , because the shortest path  was jammed , Kiwi suggested to take the highway PIE (the other side from the lift area ) ; indeed he reached earlier than us , guessed he traveled 100km/ h cause  I think that side no speed camera , and actually I imagined that the elderly hair stands up when he reached the place ……: ) kidding la…. .

 

 

Conclude

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Thanks for the present and  Time well spend .

Blessing all good health and happy always.

Have a great week ahead .  

 

Cheers

Hwee Seng

A different afternoon at Bright Hill home for you and me…. ‘YOU’ referred to Seetoh, Mei Fang, Jane & boys (Darren & Desmond), Joanne, Kee Hoon, Hwee Seng, Cui Xian and Chung Tat. Together, we served a short notice to clear and tidy the store room.

 

I would like to describe it as ‘good teamwork’ as practically no one was slacking. On the contrary, everyone worked hard to meet the afternoon’s goal. The home kindly sent two male staff to help us out on heavy stuff. The biggest and bulkiest item cleared was the Chinese drum!! No one actually remembered how it came about. However, one could imagine how much of fun and joy the drum and drummers had contributed in the past years. Looking at the rusty and tattered appearance, it certainly had its sentimental value. Sadly, we had to forgo the drum to make space for the home.

 

In the process, we cleared lots of ‘old’ stuff left behind from our ‘zhan pei’ volunteers. There were several boxes of art and craft items that clearly demonstrated the hardwork and creativity from our previous volunteers. According to veteran volunteer, Seetoh those were made in an effort to sell them to raise funds for the volunteer group. A closer look at the items showed that they had price tags on them. We managed to salvage a few boxes that are still of ‘appearance’ and ‘value’ and we would try our luck to sell them at the December carnival which is being organized by the Elderly Network Sector.

 

There was a box full of paper butterflies, colourful and pretty just to describe them. Most importantly, we knew these were meticulously folded by a male elderly, Wong Pak who now resides in AWWA located at Blk 123, Ang Mo Kio. Wong Pak really has a fond interest in making butterflies. 2 years ago when I visited some aunties at Blk 123, Wong Pak was around to help buy food for them and even travelled to Chinatown to buy Chinese New Year flowers for the aunties. He was then proud and determined to hold up a box which displayed his latest batch of butterflies. I was then impressed with what an elderly especially a ‘man’ could do to pass time. Unfortunately, Wong Pak’s health has weakened over the years and the aunties said that he dare not venture out of his quarters because of his frequent dizzy spell. Looking at the butterflies in the store room, it reminded me of Wong Pak, a fatherly looking figure…

 

Finally, we are pleased to announce that the store room and all of our group’s stuff are cleaned up and boxed up for future use. Even the dirt on the floor and corners were not spared. Thanks to Chung Tat and Ah Niu (Hwee Seng) for their good sweeping skills! And for those who knew the story about Ah Niu’s wallet.. Ah Niu had these to say… ‘thats why has to do more good deeds… example sweeping the floor…’ hahaha that literally meant ‘hao ren you hao bao’. It certainly was a great relief for Ah Niu!

 

After a lapse of some weeks due to personal reasons, I find myself lacking in self-discipline in going to the home.  Nevertheless, my visits on 30 June & 7 July was filled with warmth and little surprises from our elderly. Cheerful faces welcomed my return followed by requests to buy ointment and cup noodles. I suppose they didn’t feel good to ask other volunteers except for me ‘cos I always poke fun with them and behave ‘seow seow’ towards them. That’s me – creating light-hearted moments…

 

A very big welcome to Cui Xian and Joanne. Cui Xian witnessed what simple pleasure was like when the elderly on the 3^rd level was served with coffee. I encourage Cui Xian to share this moment and her feelings with us. (Cui Xian, feel free to drop us an email.)

 

The home has a new elderly who introduced herself as ‘mui mui’. To describe her… fun-loving; good sense of humour; enjoys tearing used envelopes; happily takes on every pile of envelopes. In two occasions, I heard Mui Mui said to another auntie 累了就休息我可以帮撕你那一份 (kind and helpful)… to an uncle 上次拿了你的风油现在还一支给你 (trustful)…

 

Catherine

Dear volunteers,

 

Do you have any thoughts to share?  Any thoughts which you may have with regard to the elderly residents you have visited, an outing or an activity you have been through.  You may either add a comment on this particular blog or email it to evergreenvolunteer@hotmail.com.  We look forward to read your thoughts.

 

Please read some thoughts shared by our volunteers recently:-