October 26th, 2004
Parent’s love
» motherhood
Yesterday, my father visited my maternal grandma, and found that she was alone at home. She is almost 80, and her health has deteriorated greatly recently. Weak legs, back aches, bad hearing, I would described her as vunerable. My cousin’s wife (who looks after her) is back in Thailand for a few weeks and probably is not returning until she delivered her baby there next year, my uncle and auntie are working, my two cousins are working and in school. So, we realised no one looks after her at home. She always reminds us to visit her more often, and I always said I will, but hardly shown myself. Sigh, so bad of me. Must make it a point to visit her at least once a week . If I can’t do anything to improve her health or her living condition, the least I can do is to keep her company.
At this stage of life, when I am eargerly encouraging the baby to “walk”, and having learnt about my grandma’s state, this article/ad/campaign just got me sentimental again.
See the rest of the lot.
October 26th, 2004 at 1:35 pm
Hi, thanks for sharing the ads. They are very touching!
October 26th, 2004 at 5:48 pm
Thanks for sharing this! I was taken care of by my paternal grandmother when I was a baby. She lives with my parents, but in the day, there is no one home. My sister is now working, I’m married and not living in the house and my parents are working…she is alone at home in the day. My aunties and uncle come by every now and then but it’s not that often. I’m very very close to her and I often wondered what she would do if she ran into problems at home and there is no one to help her.
There was one time I did a search on the Internet and found a device that is more like a emergency dialer that is worn at the neck or wrist. If the person presses the button, it is supposed to activate the pre-programmed numbers and alert the appropriate parties. This would be very useful in times of emergency and perhaps we could save the lives of those we could not be with at that point in time. But I’m told that this will have to pass through IDA regulations and blah blah blah and I’ll probably not be able to use it here.
My grandmother had a close shave one time, her heart valve was old then and needed replacement so it had failed that day. She could not breathe properly and was in pain. Good thing, my sister was around that day. Now that she is much older now, I don’t think she can take another blow like that with no one around. I’m thinking of visiting her once or calling her more often during weekdays, but have not gotten round to doing it. Thanks for sharing the article, it is a gentle reminder that we must treasure the old folks who are still around.
October 26th, 2004 at 9:49 pm
Hey dory, where did you see that device? any url that points to it? I am really afraid that my grandma might just fall or collapse (touch wood!) when no one is around.
I certainly need to constantly remind myself to treasure my grandma. She used to dote on me so much. She was badly affected emotionally since my mom passed away two years ago, and she was her only precious daughter. Really guilty that I could pay so much attention to the baby and my calligraphy stuff, but couldn’t spare her a little bit more time. Must must must make some serious adjustment to this.
October 26th, 2004 at 10:00 pm
Here is the url:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5530234960
Nice thing about it is that there’s this remote control thing that you wear it like a necklace. So if you need help, you just press the button and it will dial the appropriate numbers.
I saw your hubby on ICQ so decided to ask him if it is approved. Seems that the device needs to be operating at an approved spectrum. *shrug* I asked the seller and he says it wasn’t stated and he only ships to the US. Well, I guess maybe you can scout something similar around on the Internet. Let me know your findings too.
October 27th, 2004 at 1:39 pm
hi,
thanks for sharing, its indeed a timely reminder that we should continue to pay attention to our elderly parents, who have done so much for us…
November 5th, 2004 at 10:13 am
Thanks for the post! Okies… i have to visit my parents today! lol… havent seen them since i left for Sydney last month!