Singapore’s Mother Teresa
A centenarian is living proof that laughter is the best medicine, and a happy heart adds zest to life.
TERESA Hsu Chih is one unforgettable character. The 112-year-old sends her audience into fits of laughter whenever she addresses a crowd. She simply loves to crack jokes. When questions are thrown at her, out come her wisecracks. She doesn’t give you predictable answers and may even raise a question as a challenge to make you ponder.
How does someone who has attained the ripe old age of over 100 cope with losing loved ones?
“At your age, you’ve lost many good friends. How do you feel?” Hsu was asked.
Thrust with such an emotional question, Hsu could still come up with her wisecracks.
“I’ve got tissues but not enough to share with all,” said the Singaporean.
Bubby and jovial, Hsu is no ordinary centenarian. Known as Singapore’s Mother Teresa, Hsu has an illustrious career dedicated to serving the destitute, sick and elderly. Perhaps her early exposure to poverty had helped her empathise with the poor and needy.
Born in Shantou, China, in 1898, Hsu remembers vividly the struggles of her childhood.
“We were very poor. Once, I was so hungry I could barely walk. I stopped by the roadside and pulled out some grass and put it into my mouth. Eating grass didn’t remove my hunger. I was about five or six then,” Hsu related in an interview.
“I decided then that if it was within my power, I would see to it that no one should have to eat grass. So my work now is to beg for money (to give to the poor and needy). Now I am stopping people from eating grass.Love keeps her going
In 1927, the family migrated to then Malaya, and settled down in Penang where they worked as cleaners in Convent Light Street. Hsu studied part-time and passed her Senior Cambridge Examination in 1931. Two years later, she left for Hong Kong to work as a clerk.
In 1937, she went to Chongqing, China, to work as a secretary at a German news agency. Later, she quit her job to become a volunteer to help the wounded during the Sino-Japanese War.
“I saw a lot of suffering during the war. The bombings … one head, one leg (severed from the body of war victims) hanging on a tree. People were crying. Women were crying for their husbands (Japanese women married to Chinese men).”
Having seen the ravages of war, Hsu went to London to take up nursing in 1945, to better equip herself to help the injured. Hsu worked in hospitals in England, before she went to Paraguay in 1953 to help start a hospital and homes for the sick and elderly.
In 1961, Hsu returned to Penang and later served as sister-in-charge of the Assunta Foundation in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
In 1963, she moved down south to Singapore where she served as matron of Kwong Wai Shiu Hospital and founded the Heart to Heart Service which distributes basic necessities to the needy. Two years later, she started another charity, Home for the Aged Sick, and retired as its matron in 1985.
Hsu has a bagful of awards to show for her tireless charity work.
She was honoured with the Guinness Stout Effort Award (1988), the Life Insurance Association Award (1994), Her World Woman of the Year 1999 Special Award, Special Recognition Award at Singapore’s National Volunteerism and Philanthropy Awards 2005, and the Public Service Star award in 2009.
In 2003, Hsu was given an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the University of South Queensland, Australia. That same year, she was honoured with the Active Senior Citizen of the Year Award in Singapore.
"This woman has only $39 in her bank account.Yet she 's completely fearless.She's the most powerful person i 've ever met."A reporter asked ;" How do you start living a fearless life?" Instead of giving an answer, she asked a question in turn."What are you afraid of?That is the first question you must ask yourself. Does fear help anybody?No,So why spend so much time on fear?" "Fear is crippling. Fear takes all the joy out of living."
So does Hsu have any plans to retire from social work?
“I am not retiring as long as there are poor people who need help. They are my brothers and sisters,” said Hsu.
“I go and beg for food and money for all my people,” she said, “I sit and chat with them like friends; we laugh and cry. And they feel much loved.”
Asked about the secret of her youthfulness, Hsu quipped: “It happened by chance. So everybody has a chance, too.”
Secret to good health
People are curious how healthy she is, having lived over a century.
Do you take any medicine?
“I don’t because I forget to be ill,” came her wisecrack.
Her personal aide and co-social worker Saranan Rao who accompanied her on her recent trip to Malaysia, clarified: “I seldom see her sick and her blood pressure is normal. She had an insulin test and when the result came back, everything was OK.”
Hsu quipped: “Very disappointing.”
Laughter is obviously Hsu’s best medicine.
Hsu is an avid reader, Rao disclosed. “Her mind is alert. In her house, there are books everywhere. She sleeps very little. Give her a good book and she forgets to sleep. But she takes short naps very often. Cat naps.”
All that reading has not strained her eyes. She does not wear glasses and has not undergone any laser treatment for her eyes.
How does she keep jovial and happy all the time, someone asked.
Her reply: “I don’t know how to shut my mouth and laughter runs out.”
Once she visited an old lady and found her crying as her uncle had passed away.
“I held her hand and sang her a silly children’s song. Halfway, she was laughing,” said Hsu.
Hsu meditates in the morning and evening for “a peaceful mind and a happy life”. She took up yoga at 67, and still practises it. However, she avoids the difficult moves because she has suffered a few falls.
“My body forgets to feel pain. I have no chance to complain,” she said.
What’s the most valuable lesson she has learnt in life?
“To always love people. Love them even when they’re nasty because they’re unhappy. Send out loving-kindness to them to counter their nastiness. Love conquers all,” said Hsu.
Rao shared a story of how Hsu wanted to visit someone in prison.
“A popular sifu in Singapore had had a big fall. (Hsu clarified: ‘Not physical fall. Done something wrong.’) A friend told Hsu about the monk. The next morning, she wanted to visit him and said to me: ‘Whenever a brother or sister falls down, we must clean the sand from the knee and comfort them, not condemn them.’”
Rao related this to his friend and the latter was moved to tears. He was so touched that Hsu had so much compassion and love.
“We spent a good time with the sifu,” Rao recalled.
At present,
Hsu is still actively involved in charity work. An advocate of healthy living, Hsu often gives public talks at schools, welfare homes, and hospitals in Singapore and overseas about health and service to the needy. When asked about the secret of her good health and longevity, Hsu attributes her good health to a spartan lifestyle, vegetarian diet, and to her positive attitude towards life:
‘I prefer to laugh than to weep. Those people who cry to me, I always tell them it is better to laugh than to use tissue paper, as laughing is free but tissue paper still cost five cent. 'Ha ha ha' cost no cents.’
She starts her day at 4 am with calisthenics, meditation and an hour of yoga exercises. At night, she does yoga again, then reads until midnight. She picked up yoga at age 69. She also teaches yoga to the young and old at temples, associations, hospitals and schools. She eats sparely; her breakfast is a glass of water or milk. Lunch is often milk and salad and it is milk or yogurt for dinner. At home, she has a 2,000-volume private library she calls Prema, which in Sanskrit means "divine love". Today, her days are kept busy with trips to help needy senior citizens, reading and yoga practice at her sparsely-furnished single-storey house attached to the Society For The Aged Sick
Hsu’s parting message:
'The world is my home, all living beings are my family, selfless service is my religion.’
“Love one, love all!”
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