My IMHope Journey : Part 3

How was your week? Thank you for visiting my blog once again 😊 I am so glad to be able to celebrate the birthdays of a few residents from both the male and female wards today. That was the main highlight for today's session!

Summary of today's session ✔👍

We had simple colouring activities today with the residents. The highlight for today is definitely the Birthday Celebration for residents born in the month of January. Many were excited and especially looked forward to the cake and drinks.

Self-Reflection

Today is my first time at the females ward. From the moment I set foot into their ward, I can feel the distinct difference in the atmosphere between the male and female wards. The male ward was more chill and calm, while the female ward was slightly more tense as they seem to be more aggressive especially when it comes to birthday celebrations because of the cake. However, they are also more willing to share about their lives compared to most of the older males and were more interactive.

One encounter I had that I would never forget:

There was once we went to the female ward and there was this resident who was really excited and came over to do some colouring activites with us. However after awhile, the nurse tried asking her to stay away from us as she had touched volunteers inappropriately in the past and the nurse was afraid we would be traumatised by such acts of her. I was shocked because the resident didn't do anything to us but I understood that the nurse merely wanted to protect us (volunteers). The resident was really reluctant to move and she came back every few minutes and I felt really sad seeing this as she genuinely wants to interact with the volunteers. There were many unexpected encounters today. Honestly, before coming today I did not expect there to be such vast differences between the wards of both genders.

At the end of the session, we were told that one of the patients had recently passes away. I had not personally met him before as he was already in the hospital for a few months. However, it was really heart-breaking to hear that there were not any family members or friends that visited his funeral. At his last moments, the volunteers played one last round of card game with him, his favourite past time in the years he stayed there. This made me realised that we the volunteers, might be one of the few that would actually remember the existence of these patients. This patient most probably had stayed at IMH for a prolonged period of time that he lost all contacts with all his family and friends outside. His ashes were returned to the sea as a way "setting him free" after staying at IMH all his life. It was really sad to hear this but at the same time I was glad that there were volunteers by his side in the final moments of his journey in life, and also people who would remember him. As volunteers, we too can make a huge difference to their lives.

It was nice to see the January Birthday Aunties and Uncles so happy when blowing the candles and during the celebration as a whole. Look forward to the next birthday celebration in February! 😊