I have spent a beautiful Deepavali at Jamiyah Nursing Home last saturday with West Coast YEC and a bunch of lovely volunteers from NTU and NUS medicine.
We had breakfast at the nearby market and head over to the home. The volunteers wheeled the elderly for a walk while the three of us stayed to set up the place for our activities. Due to the shortage of manpower, the each elderly could only go downstairs for a walk once or twice, thus our volunteers were glad that more elderly could enjoy the walk that day.
A series of acitivities followed. We had a professional hairdresser who cancelled all her appointments that day to come down to the home to volunteer her service. The elderly were happy to receive haircuts, and take photos with interesting props and the photos were developed instantly by a photographer who we engaged for the event. Another team of volunteers went around to interact with the elderly and provide them coloring papers and crayons, some of the elderly really enjoyed coloring and didn't want to stop while many others just want to rest. There was another team of volunteers who went around the wards to put up windmill decorations for the elderly and stick their photos at their beds.
What touched me was that although some of the elderly were really ill, they remained cheerful and were really friendly towards us. They were strong and kept their spirits up! And this, is what I should remember whenever I feel defeated, that keeping my spirits up would give me the hope to move on.
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