Health Shop Ambassador’s Testimonial – Gigi

 

Rely on each other

Through the clear glass door, I saw a lady with a walker standing in front of the shop; I quickly opened the door for her. This lady was not tall and a little bigger than I am, she was wearing the light blue hospital patient jacket. I assisted her to come into the shop and offered her to sit on the folded chair. The recovery shop is very small, with her sitting on folded chair, the walker, and me already filled the entire shop.

She wanted to buy two large size bottle of water and said she couldn’t carry a third one. I asked curiously, “doesn’t hospital ward have water provided?” She answered, “I can’t drink tap water and needing to buy bottle water.” I didn’t ask further about the water, rather we talked about the injury on her leg. Then she told me the story:

“Actually my husband is also staying in this hospital. He has cancer and just had a surgery. On the day of his admission, I was trying to get him some daily use items at the supermarket. Didn’t expect to be stepped on by a person breaking my toe bone and needed to be hospitalized myself. Life is so unpredictable! Now I cannot walk freely and needing to take care of a husband who just gone through a surgery. It is very difficult.”

 

She continued, “When you are unlucky, bad thing happens one after another. I do not have a lot of relatives, wanted to call my sister, who lives in another country, to share my sadness. But my phone broke, couldn’t even use the phone book function to lookup her contact number. And my father-in-law just passed away about ten days ago, my husband gets very emotional when he thinks about it. I could only comfort him by saying, I am here with you, do not leave me here alone. We still need to rely on each other until we get old.”

 

She started teary and apologized, “I am so sorry, I cannot holdup any more. I can’t share my sadness with anyone, especially my husband. I can only take a break when he is asleep. Now that both of us are out of work, we still need to face the huge hospital charges and the living expenses after we discharge from the hospital.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine to express your emotional in front of me. You will feel better after you have relieved your emotion.” After hearing her story, I lingered in her pain, couldn’t find the right word to response. It is true that nothing I can do or say to ease the pain that she is going through. If offering a listening ear would make her feel better, I am pleased to be the listener. 

After she is calmed and wiped her tear, she asked, “Are my eyes red? I need to go back to take care of my husband in the ward now, wouldn’t want him to know that I had cried.”

 

I comforted her and assisted her down the stairs to leave.

That painfulness still lingered after she had left the shop. During these days, I have been feeling depressed due to my family problems. This lady whom I have never met before told me her more sorrowful and unbearable story; comparing to her story, nothing about my life that I need to be sadden for. I really want to thanks her. If I have not listened to her story today, I don’t know how much longer I will be depressed.

To the lady that I met today, wish you for a bright future! May you and your husband can rely on each other until you two are old and grey!