I’m currently watching this show on Singapore TV.
Yes, it’s a pretty cliche sad story, and also, yes, it’s true.
And it’s a show that I watch asking myself ‘what if’.
What if I grow old like the old lady? What if I was born to a family of such, where I was abandoned to be taken care of by my grandmother only?
The drama opens with a toilet scene, where some office ladies were lining up to use a cubicle that was being cleaned. They were complaining, as the cleaning lady was very slow. The toilet door opens and we see this old lady apologizing…
It really makes me wonder, if those cleaner ladies whom I’ve encountered before are having such lives. If the aunties who clean tables for me to have my meal at hawker stalls are alright. And also those old folks who are working at McDonalds as they smile and ask me which meal I want.
I don’t know about others, but me for one, always make it a point to play my small small part whenever I receive such service from the elderly. Whenever this old lady clean up the table at hawker centre, I’ll help her out by putting the dirty cups on to her tray, and after she has wiped my table, I’ll say thank you with a smile. I would not keep myself distantly away, and stand waiting for her to clean up the table, only to sit down and pull out a tissue paper and wipe vigorously on the table… Yes, it’s her job to clean the table, but that does not mean you can’t help her out a bit, and thanking her. You don’t lose anything…
And at McDonalds, I make it a point to hand the payment and receive the change through hand-to-hand contacts. I try not to place the money on the counter, and I’ll extend my hand to receive the change. And a smile and a thank-you is the least I can do…
And whenever I see the cleaner lady mopping the floor, I try not to use that walkway, and if I really do, I’ll walk on the darker tiles if any, and uses big steps, and I’ll say sorry to the cleaner lady. I’ve seen some ppl walking straight across the still-wet floor just like that… and there are those who complain how the auntie chooses lunch time to mop the place.
Anyway… my point is this: Yes, I’m blowing my ass off here, but I’m not farting. I’d think that there are some things we can do to make the elderly feels alright. “For what” you might ask. I would ask back, “why not?” Afterall, these are people who have been through the world, who have lived lives of perhaps what we are going through currently. I would think that it’s a form of appreciation, no matter… I mean, even if they have done wrong in the past, I’d think that they’d done some kind of good as well. And sometimes, it’s the situation that they just can’t avoid. I’m sure no one would wanna end up being a cleaning lady…
What I’m asking is, be nice. Just do that. There’s nothing that you lose, in fact, you gain to become a graceful person. Just be a bit sensitive and be a bit helpful. Move aside whenever you see a old man with cane walking towards you; you won’t die doing that. Hold the lift door for that slow-moving old lady on cane; you won’t die losing a few seconds more of your time. Help that old lady up the stairs; don’t worry, her old-ness is not contagious.
Start with that with a good heart, and extend that to disabled people, children, and the rest of humankind. Again, you lose nothing…
DYK: I teared watching that drama, and yes, I tear easily whenever I watch a sad movie…
