This is life,
I think the elderly are a bunch of people we all take for granted more than once in our lives.
But don't you think they can be just about the most precious age of humans? I think they are.
I think they are just like babies in the most beautiful of ways.
Well, at least to me.
Suddenly, they all seem adorable with their wrinkly faces, their toothless smiles when they're without their dentures, and their frail little frames.
Sure, they can be bossy and demanding and unreasonable at times, but just think about who isn't? Would you say you're not bossy or demanding or unreasonable at all at your current age?
I think it's especially this generation of old people that are the most precious.
They barely know Chinese, or English. So they believe most of what you say when you are speaking in a language they know squat about. Perhaps only 'Hello', 'Thank you', 'Bye-bye'.
Doesn't it sound the cutest when the English language is being spoken by someone who has only known and spoken Hokkien, Teochew, Cantonese or any other dialects all their life?
I love it when I hear my grandmothers say 'Cute'. "很 cute, hor?", they would say. It makes me smile all the time.
They are cuter than the object they just spoke of. They are the cutest.
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There 's something about old age that I think is somewhat similar to ... young age, or babies who barely know anything - mannerisms, speech, or the way of life.
Because when one gets old, your body, brain, and huge chunks of memory follows suit. Guess the only important ones stay. Like the heart, or some parts of the brain, or... just special memories of your first love or your first kiss that you will never forget. For kids, it's the same thing, no? You remember how you should not do this or else Mummy will get angry, or which candy tastes the best so you'd choose it all the time.
My point is, there's this sense of innocence in children that I think is present in the elderly as well. They make me smile in ways that are slightly different the way children make me smile, but somehow it feels the same.
I like to think of that as life coming full cycle. You end up the way you came in.
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I think the elderly are precious because of their knowledge, and their wisdom, and their experience in things we have not done before.
Like raising kids. 5 or more. Can you do that now?
Sure, you'd say times have changed. Whatever. I'm sure the men and women had it harder than we did 40 years ago. Try not having maids, or washing machines, or clean water from taps.
Maybe my affinity to and special appreciation of the elderly stems from my upbringing of having grown up with my grandparents, and still sharing a bed with one of them now (since I was a baby).
Every single loss of my grandparent will cause me great pain because of this.
It doesn't matter if I didn't spend too much time with them, or was brought up by them (my paternal grandfather kinda brought my sister up more than he brought me up), they are special... And they will always be.
Seeing random sad grandparents make me sad as well. Sad lonely grandparents who have so much to offer (they can tell you how to cook porridge perfectly, or how much of which sauce to put into your cooking, or share with you the best recipes they have came up with themselves [something you would NEVER have been able to come up with because it's just a different mindset, a different life, different taste, and different inspiration]).
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I think we should all take time to show love and care and concern for the elderly. Be it the lady picking up your trash (or others' trash, fine if you insist you don't throw rubbish on the floor.), or cleaning the bathroom, or the one washing your dishes.
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As for me, I told LY today that if we were to get married, I'll make sure my children learn the Hokkien dialect so that sometimes, someday (perhaps never, but there's always my parents)... if they meet a precious old man/woman anywhere who might need help, they can speak in fluent dialect (more fluent than me, maybe).
We'd bleed ourselves dry for you.
Anything, anything for you.