I was quite pissed off by the mistreatment case of an elderly stroke patient at the Nightingale Nursing Home. I am not sure other than that patient, whether other children or elderly folks will suffer the same fate in those homes. To me, I have never agreed to send any of my loved ones to the nursing homes. I get very frustrated and worried when I was told that my grandfather is sent to the nursing home. I am not sure how he has been treated since I am not there for 24 hours daily. I thought that my grandfather was settling down quite well until I heard from my father yesterday that the doctor warned the caregiver to change his bedsheet as he was bitten by the bed bugs all over his body and he has this stomach condition which my mum told me in Mandarin which I do not understand. The worst thing was my father told us there were flies settling down on my grandfather's legs which nobody cared.
Wah lau, what the fuck! I really feel like calling my relatives and scold them. How will they feel if their children are going to throw them in nursing homes and not care for them? I keep my cool in order not to add more stress to my father. My grandfather was supposed to go for his medical appointment yesterday. The caregiver was shocked that my father did not know about it when my father happened to be visiting him. Sigh! What the heck is that! I really wonder what kind of life my grandfather is leading now! Why is my family so poor? If not, we can bring him back to our house and take care of him. I am simply sick of all these issues about my grandfather. Have they forgotten that this person is their father who used to take care of them and bring them up? Has he ever thrown them to children's home? Has he ever mistreated them? All they know is to side the richer siblings. This is not the time to have sibling rivalry lah. Without my grandfather, would they have existed in this world and enjoy their lives till now? It is very sad that my grandfather has been cursing and scolding away as he is not a person who will complain much. This shows how much frustration and anger he has in him staying there. I will never ever claim that I understand how he feels unless I stay there for a week.
What is this society becoming? Old folks should be treasured by all of us as they used to contribute to the society in various fields and in their own ways. Without them, we could not have been enjoying the growth and prosperity out of their hardwork now. My colleague and I were discussing on this issue just now. We realize that children are given much more attention than the elderly folks. Maybe, most people may think that children have many more years to live and can be groomed to contribute to the society while the elderly folks are just there waiting to die. Is this really the mentality that most of us may be having? Within my family circle, I also heard recently about three family members who are falling very sick in the family while the son is enjoying his life with his wife and children, abandoning his own sickly parents and sister who is not sound to work. His pay and his spouse's are high. He is supporting the parents of his spouse, his spouse and children. He even confessed that his spouse's money is meant to be saved to have better life later as he does not want to end up like his parents. He still had the cheek to scold his mother when someone from MCYS checked on him as the victim was trying to get financial assistance for her family. This is real story. My mum called to listen to the victim and comforted her.
I seriously don't understand what people are thinking nowadays. While some elderly parents are abandoned by children, some parents take their children for granted not caring if their children can survive or not. They just want money, money and more money even if their children cannot survive in the future. I can't help but sometimes lose hope in the world. I question God what these issues are all about. It comes to my mind that it is due to the fact that we take people in our lives for granted. We may not have the thankagiving hearts what others have been doing for us and we simply 'forget'. How many people remember that if not for the hardwork of our forefathers and parents, can we still enjoying what we have today, including the families we have set up? We may complain about things and issues in Singapore. But, which country is perfect without any issues? Policies just cannot be created to please everyone. But we can never deny that we still have roofs over our heads. This country is still safe for us to stay in. All these comforts we are enjoying now would not have been possible if not due to the elderly folks who had contributed to the society when they were young.
Things are interconnected. The hardwork from the people in the past produce the comfort and prosperity that we are enjoying now. What are we contributing to the society now for our descendants to enjoy or suffer in the future? The values and damages that we contribute to the society now will affect the standard and kinds of life our descendants are going to have in the future. If we continue to take our parents for granted or vice versa, our children will do the same things to us since we are their role models. This society will become very cold and harsh. Do we want a society where everyone fights against one another just to get what he wants? Do we really want to have a society that is so disintegrated and more homes have to be built to throw more old folks or children in? For people who are more money-minded, it will not benefit them too as more taxes need to be raised to support such welfares and homes. It will lead to more social problems requiring more counselling, psychological help, hospitals and even prisons.
Better wake up before more shocking news come along the way. God has created us to love, not to destroy. If our existence is meant to destroy one another, why even bother to create us? I don't really believe in karma since I am a Catholic. I only believe in the fact that what goes around comes around. The each thing that we do or say will affect some people no matter what. Our words and behaviour will have the rippling effects on the others that will continue to be passed down if things do not change along the way, whether negative or positive. I think the recent shocking news such as young people committing suicide, maid being murdered and thrown into the water tank, elderly stroke patient being mistreated without dignity at all, etc. are signals that the society is getting sick. It is up to us if we just complain and take on the passive roles of observers and forget about these matters after the news have subsided or we take the active roles of waking up in our lives and see what we can do to improve on the various social issues in our little ways.
Christ is in everyone of us. How we treat others, especially the less fortunate and ourcast and lonely ones, is how we are treating Christ as depicted in Jesus' reply to the righteous man, ''Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me' when he asked Jesus, ''Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' (Matthew 25:37-40). No matter how we defend our negative behaviour and harsh words, we can lie to the whole world but not ourselves and God. That is why we have conscience.This is what it means to be pricked by our conscience whenever we know that we hurt others with our thorns of words and actions.
Is there anyone who is poor, abused, lonely, abandoned, sickly, etc? These are the very platforms for us to share God's love with these people. By serving them, we are serving Christ too. Open the eyes of your heart and 'see' clearly where you are called to serve. What you give will definitely never be more than what you are going to receiving with joy and peace deep within in manifolds since while you are serving these people, you are serving Christ who will bless you with rewards which others can never snatch away. Everyone is capable of being a blessing to others no matter how insignificant the contribution you think it may be as quoted from Mother Teresa 'We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.' Never belittle the small little kind things that you do. God bless.
With Love,
Elena
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