Focus

Bid to make the way to heaven smooth

By Ming Yeung (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-15 08:11

Handle with care

As the service provided is a sensitive and often difficult one, the BESA chooses its volunteers carefully to ensure they suit the job.

"Some people just can't deal with corpses," said vice-chairman Susan Lam Kwai-ha. "We don't take on every person who comes to us requesting to be a pre-need caretaker. We need to access their psychological status.

"If the volunteer is not emotionally stable and mature enough, dealing with the death of someone, whom he may have known for a while, may have an adverse impact on him."

One of the misconceptions about the service offered by the BESA is that it is like a coroner, which performs post-mortem examinations, she said, explaining: "We don't pick up bodies, we just identify them".

In Lam's opinion, death is the final destination on life's journey. "If people accept it as something natural, they will not focus on the sadness," she said. "We intend to let the elderly die peacefully, not regrettably."

Lam has had 15 years to train herself to be a "professional and rational" pre-need caretaker, a duty she first performed when a friend asked her to arrange a funeral of an elderly man who died in a car accident.

If a client receives a social security allowance from the Hong Kong government, the costs of their BESA-organized funeral - on average about HK$11,100 ($1,400) - will come out of the public purse. If not, bill is paid with money from an affiliated charitable fund.

However, Nip said the burial grant of about HK$10,000 provided by the city's social welfare department usually fails to cover all the necessary funeral expenses.

After deducting the cost of the death certificate (HK$140) and cremation (HK$1,300), the remainder is only enough for the basics, such as the coffin, shroud, quilt and transportation.

Money for other things, such as the funeral hall (HK$800) and a place in the government-run columbarium (HK$3,000) need to be covered by those providing the services.

A gray area also exists when dealing with relatively well-off elderly people not eligible for the social security allowance, who die without a will and have no one to leave their money to. In such cases, social welfare officials are not responsible for the funeral costs and the matter is passed to the food and environmental hygiene department.

"The administration should consider updating and fine-tuning the policy," suggested Nip.

"If a single elderly person dies, his or her funeral expenses should be taken up by the government, even if he or she doesn't receive the allowance," he said. "For deceased recipients of the allowance, the burial grant should be increased."

Starting out

The BESA began from humble beginnings thanks to an ambitious re-housing plan introduced by the Hong Kong government more than two decades ago.

The Comprehensive Redevelopment Program launched in 1988 was aimed at improving the environment and living standards for tenants in government-owned properties. The largest estate to undergo redevelopment was Tsz Wan Shan, which comprised of 63 blocks and about 80,000 residents at the time.

Law Ying was one of 18,000 people aged 60 and over on the estate back then. Like others living alone, she said moving was a daunting prospect. "I was worried about how I would be able to re-house all by myself," said the 81-year-old.

To solve the problem, a group of volunteers, social work students and university lecturers was formed to help more than 100 single elderly people move. That group became the BESA in 1989.

"In 1995, they helped me move the furniture into my new apartment, covered the floor and fixed the lighting - all free of charge," said Law.

Like many of fellow migrants, Law was born in neighboring Guangdong province. Life was arduous before she arrived in Hong Kong in 1976 to join her husband, leaving her only son in her hometown.

"My husband died just four years after we were reunited. My son was only 12 years old at the time," she said.

The widow then took on two jobs, working in an electronic industry during the day and helping out trimming garment ends at night, and sent money home to her families in the mainland.

Contrary to the common belief that all elderly people want to stay with their children and grandchildren, Law said she is reluctant to join her son in Guangdong after having lived alone for more than three decades, except the occasional visits during festivals.

"I won't go back, even they carry me in a sedan chair," she chuckled, although she added with a sigh: "Many of my longtime friends have already passed away, gone back to their old homes or entered care homes, so I don't get to see them very often."

About 151,300 people aged 60 or over live alone like Law, according to official statistics released in 2009.

Meaningful experience

Lee Kwan, a 96-year-old living in the same building as Law, is also grateful for help she has received from the BESA.

Born in 1914, Lee spent her youth on a farm in Guangdong province but a visit to Hong Kong in the 1940s changed her life forever. A rich family hired her as a live-in housemaid, a job she performed for four families until her back pains prevented her from working in her mid-60s.

One of the traditions of live-in maids back then was to remain single, said Lee, explaining why she never married. She also has no family in Hong Kong, although her niece from the mainland sometimes visits for three-month periods.

Asked if she felt regretted sacrificing the chance of marriage for her job, she replied with a firm "no" before adding: "All my employers treated me well. I was happy working for them.

"One of my employers gave me six tickets for Ocean Park (a popular marine wildlife attraction) and persuaded me to go for a visit," she recalled. "But I gave the tickets to some poor families whose kids were more willing to go. I've still never visited the Ocean Park yet."

Law and Lee are just two of the hundreds of pensioners who have benefited from the relationships they have built with volunteers from the BESA.

Ruby Yeong Pui-shan has worked part time for the group for more than a decade. Among the clients she visits is an elderly cancer patient who is receiving treatment in hospital.

"He told me that he has no family and that he is not sure what his life would be like without us," said Yeong. "I just tell him he has nothing to worry about. All the BESA volunteers are his family now."

For volunteers who also hold down full-time employment, the greatest challenge is preventing fatigue from affecting their performance.

"After a whole day of work, I am very tired, so the angel of good has to fight hard against the devil of laziness," said Yeong with a smile.

However, the sympathy she feels for her clients always wins out. "If I didn't go (to see them), who else will?" she said.

"Helping to arrange funerals is undoubtedly important but looking after lonely elderly people is far more meaningful," she added. "It's not about the moment of saying goodbye. It's about their trust in us before their last breath."

BESA is now expanding its services from covering Wong Tai Sin district to the entire city in an effort to serve more elderly people.

"Now my funeral has been taken well care of by the BESA volunteers, I have nothing to worry about," said Lee.

Volunteers with the Banyan Elderly Services Association fold paper offerings that contain lucky tokens, right, ahead of a funeral for one of the group's clients at the city's Diamond Hill parlor.