71. St. Mary Nursing Home

 

The old Italian American couples

At the end of my three months SOFM class, I did not do well in class because I could not understand Australian English. I plan to live outside school for three months, learnt Russian in the Russian church, attending Russian church service, and volunteer at St. Mary’s nursing home, teaching handicrafts. Because the head of SOFM asked for 10 hours a week to volunteer, I was able to live outside, and I was learning Russian while volunteering to care for the elderly.

Once, a 95-year-old grandmother grabbed my hand for 20 minutes, and there were old Italian Australian couples who liked me very much, and their old children, who rarely came to see them, had countless tears in their hearts.

Once, after volunteering, I called my dad in Taiwan, and I cried and said, “Dad, you are old, I will support you and take care of you, and I will never send you to a nursing home.” Looking at these old people, I sighed a lot in my heart. Many old people were sent there, not what they wanted, they tell me that they want to go home, go back to their nests, plant flowers and plants, live their own lives, and be picked up by the Lord in their sleep, this is just their little wish, how do we treat our parents, our children will also treat us like this, one generation to the next, the family is so sad!