I hadn't given ageing a serious thought before, just like my nonchalance towards marriage and building a family. I couldn't, for a start, picture how I would look like when I am old. Hmm I tried the app "Oldify" and to be honest, the image is distasteful. HAHAHA. Which part of the world will I be in? Would I have found my soulmate by then? Come to think about this topic now, I feel that it is a blessing to be able to live that long. We do not necessarily have to fall into the stereotype of a pale, hunchbacked or even bedridden elderly. Increasingly we see 70-year-old ah gongs able to do 100 push-ups, 80-year-old ah ma-s doing taiji at the playground. I don't see how ageing is a bad thing at all. The accumulation of life experiences, knowledge and wisdom will be so rich that you can recount endless of stories to your grandchildren.
Inevitably, we lose people as we grow older. It's already happening now, with people coming in and out of our lives like you are just another pitstop. What I am talking about here is something more somber - experiencing the physical departures of our loved ones. The love is real but so long as it's people we love, they will leave us eventually even if they don't want to. Nobody lives forever. A few philo students would say that the ephemerality of life is what gives meaning to life. That's true. I guess eventually we will get used to their absence. We humans adapt. We all do even if it's against our will. It's a survival instinct to do so. We all assimilate into the environment we never belong to anyway.
I'm thankful to have joined THearts when I was a freshie :-) "Loving is Giving" - I remembered brainstorming for this slogan with Tay when we were in the planning subcommittee for an elderly care volunteering program which lasted for a good 10-month period. Met my another Ah Ma over there, who's just as doting as my biological grandmother. When we first got to know her, her husband was still alive though barely able to move and speak. They were each other's only companions. As the months went by, he got weaker and then his time was up. We didn't get to be there for her physically :/ and only visited her when she started feeling better. Ah Ma appeared to be strong and did not lose hope in life. She told us that the help she received from caring social workers and her faith in God got her through :')
Still looking young and cheerful :-)
"It is not about how much we give, but how much love we put into giving." Sometimes I feel that nurses and social workers in Singapore are really underrated and they deserve much more appreciation than they have now. I always hear stories from my older sister about how undervalued nurses are and that makes me frustrated. Caregivers require insurmountable compassion, patience and devotion. They choose this job not because they are not qualified for "better" high-paying jobs. Neither are they stuck at the bottom of the ladder. Caregivers are people who hold our societies together, who help the defeated get back on their feet, who sacrifice pretty much of their personal lives to the betterment of other people's lives. On the bright side, the government is doing more to address the shortage of caregivers and to afford more recognition to them :-) It's heartening to see the rise in number of scholarships offered in the health and social service sector. Hopefully Singapore can work towards a more inclusive society that respects all professions and gives due credit to the merits of each :-)
May we all treat life as it comes with an open heart and mind, and live it to the fullest :-) HAPPY ACTIVE AGEING FOLKS!
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