My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 15

times a day.” To build the doctors’
confidence in providing palliative
care, Dr Ee paid for volunteer
doctor Dr Lee and two of his
colleagues to go on a study trip
at St Christopher’s Hospice in the
UK. They came back better able
to accompany their patients and
their families on the final journey.
THE FIRST
RELOCATION
Some 10 years after St Joseph’s
Home began operations, the
government wanted to reclaim
the land at Gek Poh to build new
flats. In exchange, they offered
two new plots - one, near the
SCDF training centre which the
Sisters thought would be too
noisy in the mornings. The other
is the site of the current home at
36 Jurong West St 24. Unable to
negotiate for freehold status, St
Joseph’s Home signed a 30-year
lease that was to expire in 2019.
By 1993, the second home
was built. Residents moved into
an idyllic if somewhat sleepy
neighbourhood with fruit trees
and kampungs lining one side of
the home and HDB blocks on the
other. Volunteers came in to give
generously of their time. “There
was this man Joseph Heng”, says
Sr Mary, “who came in to help us
cross breed our bougainvilleas so
much so that we had really lovely
pots of the plant for awhile.”
and former
st-of-Honour
ue
G
g
in
ow
new home
Sr Mary Tan sh
o around the
Ye
e
rg
eo
G
r
Ministe
The second home
Laying of the foundation stone for the second home
St Joseph’s Home | 13