Elderly Care Worker's Heart Series: She Is Still Listening

Everyone said that Grandma Chen would never speak again. Hemiplegia, aphasia, refusal to eat, and refusal to be approached by anyone. The ward smelled of medicine all year round, and the sycamore leaves outside the window fell layer after layer. She just looked at the right hand that could not move in silence. Until the young caregiver Lin Shutong came to her. A morning care session, a mouthful of rice that was swallowed slowly, a page of an old textbook that had been re-opened, a word that was almost inaudible... Lin Shutong discovered that it was not that Grandma Chen couldn't hear, nor that she didn't want to live. She just shut herself behind a deep door and waited for someone to knock patiently. Care is never just about wiping, feeding, turning over and recording. In the quietest ward, Lin Shutong gradually heard the echoes in the old man's silence, and in this long and detailed work, he saw again the dignity and light of the last stage of life.