The world of Tzu Chi February 2020 (Vol.119)

2020 • 02 24 life by ingesting pesticides. Her doting husband stood by her through her despair, taking her mind off suicidal thoughts by offering words of consolation and encouragement in addition to devising a wooden platform fitted with wheels, allowing her the freedom to steer herself around. The trauma of loss was palpable in Gim Tuan’s subdued voice as she spoke of her late husband, whose sudden death came as an unexpected blow to her. She remains perplexed by his unexplained decline in health leading to his demise; he was admitted to the ward after losing sensation in his legs and his appetite and passed away soon after. Now, she leads an independent life, cooking meals for herself and keeping her home spick and span, besides cultivating an assortment of flowers and greenery on a patch of land outside her chalet. During festive seasons, the volunteers would visit Gim Tuan at the settlement with home-cooked delicacies. She is grateful for the volunteers’ willingness to help her with miscellaneous domestic tasks, including repairing her leaking roof, restoring her dilapidated kitchen, installing a newmetal door and fixing faulty household appliances. The volunteers also built a new contraption for her to move on upon noticing that her old wooden platform was falling apart. Furthermore, a few female volunteers bought her an electrical stove and a rice cooker to prevent her from sustaining burns by cooking with firewood. The volunteers have been a dependable presence in Gim Tuan’s life. Gim Tuan cooped Volunteers Liu Soon Keong (from right), Tan Beow, Tan Eng and Lee Shiou Long are pictured here transporting Chua Gim Tuan on a chair from her chalet to the car, before ferrying her to the settlement’s community hall to attend a Chinese New Year distribution event in the 90s. [Photograph by Law Sook Fong] eature