While some flat owners may keep a distance from their rental flat neighbours, Madam Chin Sui Yau is the opposite.
Every Wednesday afternoon, she welcomes more than 10 residents of the rental flats at Blocks 3 and 4 in Marsiling Road to the void deck of her home in Block 5.
She chats and sings songs with the residents, who are mostly elderly and widowed, over tea.
She and her friends from a nearby church treat them to simple snacks – cakes, bananas or red bean soup.
They have been doing this since 2006.
‘They are very pathetic. Some old folk have come from estranged families and have emotional problems,’ said Madam Chin, 56, in Cantonese.
Her eyes were opened to the needs of her neighbours four years ago when she was told about a lice-infested old woman who was living in one of the rental units.
Together with some friends, she decided to bathe the old woman – whose name she still does not know – and cook for her.
‘Her nails were encrusted with faeces and she was eating mouldy bread,’ recalled Madam Chin, a widow with four children.
A few months later, the old woman died. The episode inspired her to make a difference in the lives of others in the rental blocks.
‘I went to Block 3 and started to make friends. This is what we ought to do as neighbours.’
Source: Sunday Times, 14 Feb 2010
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