Stories of elderly and poor Singaporeans – told by bloggers

Below is a collection of stories written by bloggers about poor, elderly Singaporeans. They are personal accounts of how some of our senior citizens and the poor live.

A Stranger, My Friend by Zyberzitizen:

A cat nearby keeps him company, sometimes laying above his head as he sleeps quietly, oblivious to the cold or the warmth. The void deck has been his home for a while now. Actually, for as long as I can remember seeing him there. What he has for blanket is a thin towel which hardly covers him, and a pillow so dirty none of us would ever use.

Sir, May I Have The Can Please? by Alex Au:

From many years ago, we’ve noticed scavengers along our roads, going from one trash bin to another, retrieving stuff that they could resell. I used to cringe seeing how they’d put their entire arm into a filthy bin just to pull out an item. The dirt, the disease, the scratches and cuts they exposed themselves to… I sometimes wondered what it must be like to have such a life, and felt sorry for them. (The picture on the left is not related to this particular story by Alex (Yawning Bread).)

Why Did I Procrastinate? by Lilian Lee:

When she placed the plate on the table, the man who was probably in his 60s, put his hand into his bermudas to search for some money. He took quite a while and finally he had his hands out with some coins in it. The lady then took whatever she needed and left the rest intact. The old man then put his hand back into the pocket.

He brought the bun to his mouth and bite into the steaming hot bun. The look he had on his face when he ate the bun was….. I …. I can feel tears welling up in my eyes.

An Old Man And His Tin Can Vases by Andrew Loh:

Throughout the entire conversation, he continues to twist the strands of tin foil with his fingers—and ever so patiently, he would apply glue to them and stick them to the main “body” of the vase…. each dollar from each vase he sells perhaps gives him a little peace of mind about tomorrow – in this ever-changing, fast-paced Singapore that he lives in.

“Sleepers” in Singapore by Diary Of A Singaporean Mind:

Everytime I work late and pass by the bus interchange near my place, I notice the growing number of homeless at the bus interchange. Each pillar at the bus interchange now has a permanent resident (PR). You ever wonder why the homeless sleep next to pillars….so that the tired people coming back from work don’t step on them when they sleep.

Would ANYONE Be Homeless By Choice? by Mr Wang:

You kept on looking for jobs, but except for the occasional odd job as a cleaner or dishwasher, you failed – you became just another one of those “structurally unemployable” Singaporeans. Finally, you couldn’t even get the cleaner/dishwasher job anymore, because the foreign workers from Bangladesh beat you to it.

Read also: The homeless and the old (in a so called First World Country) by Rachel.

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