Our team at Floral Garage has been consistently involved in charity events, and this CNY, we embarked on a mission to bring some CNY spirit to the elderly at Bright Hill Evergreen Home, a voluntary welfare home providing shelter for the disadvantaged and aged sick. Bright Hill Evergreen Home houses 248 elderly, of whom a great majority lie bedridden and are in palliative care. Most of them do not have family, and do not get many opportunities to venture out as well.

On the agenda was to guide the elderly in a floral arrangement class! Florist Jill guided the elderly enthusiastically through the steps of wrapping a pre-soaked sponge with bright wrapping paper and securing it with a ribbon, followed by allowing the elderly to unleash their creativity through inserting stalks of their favourite flowers into the sponge to create a vibrant flower arrangement. This was managed with the efforts of the kind staff in the home, as well as Grace, Aden and Chelsea. It was lovely to see smiles around as the lush and fresh flowers brought life and colour to their otherwise routine and likely- to- be mundane life.

Fully engrossed!

Thank you Grace! 🙂

Aden gamely taking on a table of elderly despite the lack of experience in floral arrangements! Thank you Aden 🙂

Roses, pure white baby breaths (or 满天星 skyful of stars as the elderly fondly refer to), two toned carnations as well as bright purple caspia, surrounded by tough and lush eucalyptus leaves brought joy to the elderly as they reached out again and again to add more colour to their arrangement.

A beautiful arrangement by one of the elderly

Credits: Grace/ Hearted Moments

This was an entirely unique experience, not only to the elderly but to us as well. As the younger generation, we tend to interact less with our grandparents, and hence struggled to communicate in dialect or even in Chinese, and this was further amplified when some elderly could only communicate in dialect. In the midst of exchanging genuine smiles, this was definitely a timely reminder for us to treasure our grandparents while we could.

This was an entirely unique experience, not only to the elderly but to us as well. As the younger generation, we tend to interact less with our grandparents, and hence struggled to communicate in dialect or even in Chinese, and this was further amplified when some elderly could only communicate in dialect. In the midst of exchanging genuine smiles, this was definitely a timely reminder for us to treasure our grandparents while we could.

Justin trying to overcome his Mandarin barrier to communicate with the elderly 😉

The quietness when we came in gradually gave way to excited chatter as the elderly compared their arrangements and proudly posed with their masterpieces.

A stunning masterpiece!

It is definitely difficult to be alone without family, especially during the festive occasions when they are reminded of familial love and care. We hope that the flowers will at least bring some joy and excitement with this occasion, and let them know that they are indeed cared for and appreciated!  If you are looking to bring some happiness into someone’s life and yours, do consider visiting a home or becoming a befriender.

Lastly, we thank Bright Hill Evergreen Home sincerely for giving this opportunity, and to the kind staff there for helping us out. We will definitely be back! ◡̈ Have YOU shown appreciation to your grandparents?

Special Thanks to:

Bright Hill Evergreen Home:

http://www.bheh.org

Grace, Aden, Chelsea, Hearted Moments