My first Magazine St Joseph's Home_40th Anniversary magazine.compres | Page 22

Serving with
Nothing
How has your experience
with the dying impacted
you?
People often like to ask me,
“Sister, how can you manage
being with the dying? Death is so
depressing.” But I say, “No lah!” So
I tell them that it is my privilege
to be with the patients till their
last breath. Actually, being with
the dying helps me to live my
belief. The trust that I have in
God has strengthened. For me,
I say that I have no fear of dying.
So many up there (in heaven)
will welcome me! There were a
few times when I was seriously
ill but not yet dying. I have been
involved in some freak accidents.
Once, I underwent a ten hour
brain surgery but still came out
alive. Another time, I got into a car
accident. Someone said that my
time is not up yet.
20 | St Joseph’s Home
Being with the dying and the
dead, and their family members
has mellowed my temper a lot.
God has changed me to allow
my experience of forgiveness to
overflow to others. When I was
still in school, I can be angry at a
friend for a long time. Even when
my friend was happy to meet me,
I would still be angry at her for
something that happened a few
months ago. Now, I am different.
How do you interact with
patients of a different
religion?
We treat them all the same. Once,
there was a Muslim lady that
was dying. I befriended her and
addressed her with her religion.
I told her to be open to receive
God’s forgiveness and to be always
thankful for God’s gifts to her, such
as her family and her children.
Sometimes, we will arrange
for the Buddhist monk to come
down if the patient is a Buddhist.
I believe that there is salvation for
everyone. One time, I cared for a
dying prisoner. I could feel God’s
love for him. Even the police
officers who stayed at his bedside
cried because they could feel
God’s love too. Someone who
wants to do this job must be very
convinced of God’s love. We do
this job not for conversion, but
for the patient to recognise the
Creator so that the patient can
die peacefully.
These are all very touching
stories. I never had much
interaction with the dying,
not even with my own
grandparents.
I was very upset when my
grandmother died. I was passing
by my home the day before but I
dared not visit because I did not
have permission to go home...
My mother and my father died
within ten months of each other.
When my mum was dying, I
was there with my siblings. My
father did not want us to visit him
because he knew that we were
still greiving from the death of
my mother. I remember that I just
came back from Africa when my
father was dying. When I reached
Singapore, I went straight to the
hospital and stayed with him for
four days. On the fourth night,
I decided to head home for a
shower. I left the hospital at about
7.10am to wait for a cab along
the main road. Then I got a call
from the hospital telling me Dad
has passed on. It was 7.25am.
Sometimes, I ask myself: why can
I be with dying strangers but not
my father? But these are all God’s
plans for me. StJ