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Monday, April 4, 2011

Chinese Curse


I took care of an elderly lady once. She was brought to the hospital by police after someone reported elder abuse. She was found in her room in diapers only. There were only crackers in the room. Apparently she was locked in the room by her family member; she was kept in diapers, as it would be “easy” to care for this way. She was fed mostly crackers and water. There were no sheets on the bed as it makes it easy, no sheets…. No cleaning.


When I saw her in the room she was eating grapes…… her bed side table was full of food. She was voraciously devouring her food. It was embarrassing to see her eat like that but on the other hand I was also glad that she could eat. She would not talk to me as every time I would ask her a question, she would give me an evil eye and continue to gobble something else…… grapes, lots of them I remember the most from that moment.

The sad part was that even after all that she did not complaint about her family member who did this…. only a mother can protect her child like that.

This event reminded me of a story from my childhood. There was this little kid, he was asked by her mother to go to the bazaar and buy the cheapest plate from a thrift store. He asked why mother? She said “this is for your grandmother as she breaks all the new stuff; I don’t want to waste money on a new plate”. This child went to the bazaar and came back with two old dirty plates. She was surprised and asked him “why two plates my dear?” and he said “one for granny and …. one for you when you are that age”.

In South Korea, a couple is being charged for murder after their baby daughter starved to death while they went out to play an online computer game. Sadly the game was about nurturing a virtual girl as she grows in a virtual world. What an irony.

It has been a famous Chinese curse, may you live in interesting times. I hope not too interesting.

Blog You Later.

About the picture:I spotted this presidential rabbit outside White House, hoarding something.


PS: Correction, obviously that is not a rabbit, I am not sure what I was thinking. LOL.... thank you Ann.

2 comments:

Arshia said...

Good blog!!!
:) v touching too. I wish all doctors took the human factor from thier patient interactions....

Rugby Medical Equipment said...

What an intense situation. My heart goes out to elders and children who are abused.
As the boy who bought 2 plates showed, we all need to remember that our behavior is likely to be copied by our children. We had better behave well!