From the Front Page Sections, translated…
The Indonesian nurse’s aide, Bina was hired three years ago, to look after an elderly man who’s paralyzed and bedridden, the elderly, because of his condition, plus he’d needed time to adjust, didn’t give her any good face at first, but, Bina still used her smiles to soften the elderly, and, took careful notes, on what the elderly man liked, what he wasn’t supposed to have, her hardworking manners had won the people who’d hired her over, she was chosen as the outstanding foreign worker by the Labor Department of Hsinchu.
not my photograph…
Bina said, that as she’d come to Taiwan, the ninety-year-old elderly man was paralyzed because of a car accident, his children had hired her to take care of him, and the elderly felt, that his family had, “pushed him out”, he’d become, extremely resistant to the idea.
At first she thought, “Grandpa didn’t like me”, and felt beaten, but she’d still, kept on smiling toward the elderly man. As she’d first come to Taiwan, there would be the language barrier she’d had to overcome, she’d had a notebook handy, whenever she couldn’t understand the words of the elderly, she’d jot it down using her own language, and, as the children of the elderly returned home, she’d asked them, “What does this mean?”
And, in her notes, there were also the elderly man’s likes and dislikes and what he couldn’t have; she’d needed to go to the hospital with the elderly for his physical therapy, the doctors’ reminders, she’d kept close note on too. The work the family asked her to complete, after taking her through it once, she’d learned by heart, and her good, hardworking attitude had impressed the people who’d hired her.
Bina said, once the elderly man wasn’t feeling well, she’d called the family who’d hired her, then, rushed the elderly to the emergency room of the hospital, as the family rushed over, and saw that the elderly was okay, the member of the family teared up, and pulled on her hand, “thankfully you were here, thank you.”
“So long as you’re able to work hard and learn, and use empathy, you can, manage, to resolve the issues in the elderly’s’ minds”, the thirty year-old Bina said, and now, grandpa became more mobile, he’d taught her a lot of things, her term is up this year, and the family who’d hired her wants to hire her for another term.
And so, because this caretaker used her heart, and really got to understand the elderly man she was looking after, and he’d felt how much she cared for him, that, was why and his attitude toward her had changed, and now, after leaving a great impression with the people who’d hired her, by looking after the elderly well, the family wants to hire her again.