My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 11

SERVING WITH
NOTHING
The mid-1970s, early 80s
was a heady time for Singapore.
As the multinationals started
arriving, local companies went
from producing mosquito coils
and fish hooks to hard disk drives
and silicon wafers. Old buildings
were also giving way to new ones
and along with it, the homes of
the samsui women and majies
- Singapore’s pre-war pioneer
generation, many of whom had
little to no family support.
Meanwhile, in the Western
part of Singapore, Canossian
Sister Mary Tan had just returned
from a three-year nursing stint
in London. Her first order of the
day was to start a mobile clinic.
Catholic Welfare Services (CWS)
wanted to do something for
the poor who could not afford
medicine. As Sr Mary recalls, “I
said to myself ‘I’m a nurse, I’m
not supposed to give medication.
That should be a doctor’s job’
so I was really scared. Luckily,
CWS had a volunteer doctor - Dr
Mendoza who was a Filipina. So
she went with me and dispensed
the drugs while I administered
them. We visited the Chinese in
Tuas, Indians in Jalan Kayu and
Malays in Jalan Eunos. But the
Malays were afraid we would
convert them. So we went to the
now-defunct Siak Kuan Road,
near Upper Changi Road where
our Sisters sometimes visited for
their holiday retreat. The Malays
there knew the Sisters well so
they were willing to get their
medication from us.”
Amid the rapid
industrialisation, the mobile clinic
quickly lost its relevance and a
new challenge emerged - who
would look after the samsui
women, majies and the destitute
when they could no longer
manage on their own?
Jurong Town Corporation or
JTC asked if the Sisters could
start an aged home in Boon Lay
using 20 three-room HDB flats
as their base. With no clue on
how to start, let alone manage
a home, three Canossian Sisters
- Sister Mary, the late Sister
Elizabeth Yeo and Sr Maria Teresa
Rizetti visited other homes for
ideas. Among them, the Home
for the Aged Sick which was run
by the late Teresa Hsu who was
then its Matron. Says Sr Mary,
“One of her advice to us was that
if someone is dying, don’t take
them out of the room. Let the
others in the room look after her
so that psychologically, the dying
person will say ‘this is the place
for me to die’. If you take her out,
they will feel isolated.” Another
piece of advice Sr Mary took to
heart? “She said ‘If you have eight
people living in a room, make
one of the them the ‘referee’ and
they will tell you things no one
otherwise would.”
One day, the Sisters’ little
research project reached the
ears of the then Archbishop of
Singapore, Frenchman Michael
Olcomendy. Sr Mary recalls, “He
said ‘Show me where you want to
start the home’. We showed him
the Boon Lay HDB units and he
said ‘Don’t put them in a ‘cage’,
let me take you to Gek Poh Road
to see a plot of land.’ When we
arrived, we were like ‘WOW! The
land is huge!’ It was a football
field for the children but not
much else.”
Apart from Sing
apore, the Cano
ssian Sisters also
Malaysia. The ph
operated mobile
otos above and
clinics in Johore
on the facing pa
,
ge are examples
of how they saw
to their patients
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