My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 14

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Dr Ee Peng Liang (top pho
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introduce hospice car
conducting workshops to
12 | St Joseph’s Home
friends in the Canossian Sisters
who could clearly see the need
he was talking about, given their
daily interaction with the elderly
and the dying. Sr Mary recalls,
“We told him ‘We don’t know how
to start or run a hospice, but we
can help you.’” Dr Ee went and got
the blessings of the Singapore
Council of Social Service of which
he was the President. Then the
Sisters emptied two storerooms
at St Joseph’s Home, put in some
simple furniture and the hospice
movement was born. The year
was 1985.
Their first hospice client was
their fellow Sister’s mother. Says
Sr Mary, “Her mother was dying
and her brothers were crying,
they didn’t know what to do.
Our Mother Provincial called the
home to ask if the sister’s mother
could be sent here now that St
Joseph’s Home has a hospice
service. We took her in to the
only bed that was available then.
Some of her brothers thought
it very ‘malu’ (embarrassing) to
send a loved one to an aged
home. Others disagreed. So the
hospice room became the family
room.”
Slowly, people came to learn
of the hospice care St Joseph’s
provided. A journalist wrote
about it, but at the request of the
Sisters, made no mention of the
location. The journalist simply
ended the article saying ‘if you
want to volunteer there, write to
me’.
Hundreds of letters came
pouring in. Tea parties had
to be set up to explain what
hospice care was to the aspiring
volunteers, Says Sr Mary, “Dr
Anne Merriman - one of the
doctors who came in after
the hospice was set up, told
the doctors under her to use
morphine every four hours even
though their medical training
taught them to do so only three