Ai Ling Tan: A Malaysian student doing her Honours research in Pharmacology in University of Melbourne, Australia. She loves travelling and is very much interested in photography because she believes good pictures capture moments best.
Look from my eyes, feel from my heart
http://junesixteen.blogspot.com/
This blog revolves around the life of a simple girl who hopes to see changes in the future of the world. Read what she thinks of certain issues and understand her disappointment with the reality of life. All she asks for is people to understand the sad reality of life and make changes to it bit by bit. If everyone does his/her part, the world will be a better place to live in.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Never let the elderly be alone
I often see old men and old women walking around Safeway supermarket with either their walking stick, a walker frame or a wheelchair. They are so old and frail that I'm always amazed at how independent they are.
In Western countries, old people tend to prefer to be independent rather than staying together with their children. Even an old lady I worked with during Pink Ribbon Day last year told me that she prefers to stay alone so that no one complains about how messy she is. Although they feel that this is much better because they would not need to burden their children especially when their children have their own respective families to look after, in a way I feel that they are just so lonely that even when they pass away, they pass away in their own homes without anyone knowing, until a bad stench is felt by their neighbours or until someone call to their homes and check on them.
It's such a pity when people pass away all alone.
Just yesterday I was out with a couple of my summer work friends to have dinner. There I saw an old man, the same old man who plays violin in front of Safeway supermarket, to earn a living when people drop in some money for him. I looked at that old man, eating a pastry for dinner, while staring into nothing but air. He looked very sad. I wondered what he was thinking of everytime he took a bite. Whether he was thinking of how nice the pastry was, or how his family was doing or how much money he earned today or how many days he has left.
I wanted to go forward and talk to him. To say that I know him because I always visit the supermarket and see him playing nice songs. But I didn't dare. Because I know some people do not like to be looked pitied on because they want to prove to people that they are independent. I looked at him for a couple of minutes more and then I walked away.
Now I'm thinking, if I should have stayed a while and talk to him a while. I think he needed a friend to talk to. I feel sad for him and all the other old people like him. I told myself that no matter how independent my parents (and parents-in-law) would want to be, I would definitely not make them be alone.
Like a quote,' Parents have been patient bringing us up. They cleaned our bottoms when we were babies, change our diapers when we dirtied them, teach us from scratch ABCD... 1234... patiently. Now that they're older and are incapable of doing many things they could do last time (like jumping and posing a karate kick in mid air while a picture is taken, haha, that's my dad :P), it's time for us young children to take care of them with patience, including changing their diapers if needed.
Please do not send your old folks to the old folks' homes or let them stay on their own. Their final days would definitely be better off spending quality time with their families because sometimes we do not realise when life has taken its toll and we completely forgotten our families at home.
Posted by Ai Ling April 5, 2008
