Yesterday was a heartbreaking day.
I almost cried when I heard the story. And I could see him struggling to hold back his tears too. A young lady of 23 years, with a 3-yr-old daughter, newly divorced because her husband didn’t want to take care of her. She was only married for a year when she got a stroke due to all the smoking and drinking her job required her to do. That stroke was not fatal, but it did take away her happiness and her images of a perfect family. Her husband filed a divorce while she was still in the hospital, and left her with the hospital bills to pay and a daughter to look after. Now, recovering from her stroke, she does physiotherapy everyday and has remarkable progress. Her family should be delighted at how fast she is recovering. Unfortunately, her mother requested for the written assessment by the physiotherapist to be: deteriotating. This is so that they can continue to receive insurance money from the authorities. If she were to recover completely, she would have to depend on herself again to feed the family. Hence, Deteriotating.
I’m amazed. Amazed at how selfish the mother can be. I do understand their situation and that they really needed the money to survive. But she’s still young. She can easily get a job when she recovers, and make ends meet. However, her progress to health was seen as wrong and she is even encouraged not to go for her daily exercise so that her recovery would be minimal.
There are so many people out there with such heartbreaking stories. This is only one of them. When we spend on beautiful clothes, shoes and bags, we seldom stop to think how this money could be put to better use. Me included. I spend so much money on such stuff every month and always lament on the shortage of money. True, I could do with more money definitely, but right now, it’s sufficient. Sufficient to get me through everyday. Sufficient to eat 3 full meals everyday. Sufficient even to pamper myself with that top. But look around us. So many people cannot even eat a proper meal each day, and some even go without meals. Some are all alone in Singapore, while their family members are in another country.
Many of these people, when they grow old and sickly, they have nowhere to go except homes and therapy centres. The government does its part by subsidising much of the fees, even paying in full for those without any family. However, such centres and homes are usually not funded by the government and they depend on themselves for all expenses. I do hope all of us can lend a helping hand to them by giving what we can so that they can have a better life.
Christmas is coming and many of us are happily celebrating that special day. Tons of Christmas parties are held every year for us. The therapy centre wants to hold a Christmas party too for the patients there, to give them that sense of joy and celebration all of us are having outside. They had one last year, it went pretty well, but the “people at the top” came down hard on the staff and scolded them for “wasting” the money. Most of the money came from the staff’s own pockets, who just simply wish to put smiles on the elderly patients’ faces. That is why this year, there would be no celebration, just a simple “special” meal on the day after Christmas, as a form of celebration.
All the patients enjoyed themselves tremendously last year during the party. But this year, lack of funds and the complaints made the centre a sadder and greyer place to be in. Even decorations were few and sparse in between, unlike last year where patients were given Christmas hats and presents to take home. I was there, and I saw smiles on everyone’s faces as they were going back. They might not understand the meaning behind the party, but that day was definitely one of the happiest for them. They felt that people cared about them. They felt that people were kind to them. They felt loved.
I came back home yesterday thinking a lot. I thought about the various stories I heard about some patients, I thought about how I treated my parents. I feel ashamed of myself. I want to help them, all the patients, but I don’t know how. I can only join in their simple celebration on the 26th and try to make as many patients as happy as possible.
