Someone has it worse than you
Image by Lower Columbia College via Flickr
And we were thinking of the gizmos that we don't have, while we are already up and above the 'necessities of life'?
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by Esther Ng
Updated 11:11 AM Jun 11, 2009
ON BOTH occasions, she was one-and-a-half months overdue when she gave birth to her two sons, now aged three and one. Mary (not her real name) told me that she did not once see a doctor when she was pregnant because she had no money.
"I checked myself into KK when I felt my stomach was too big," she said. She had to have a Caesarean each time.
Hers was one of the more startling anecdotes I came across while researching my story "It's not always easy" (May 30) about broken or dysfunctional families.
It was a humbling experience speaking to people who get by on less than $500 a month. Some of them live in a rental flat, others in a shelter. How do they do it? Especially with children in tow?
Something has to give. In Mary's case, it's her health - she looks anaemic.
Mary has just one meal a day so she can feed her three kids. Besides her two sons, she also has a 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
There is a ray of hope. Mary has started working as a telemarketer; she speaks English well and is quite articulate.
Mary's daughter - despite living in a one-room rental flat with four other family members - is smart enough to get into a mission school in the east. Her grades are average and who knows what they might have been with a different home environment?
Recently, Mary's three-year-old has been bugging her to send him to school. "When he sees other kids going to school, he wants to go, too," she said.
The problem is, she needs $100 to register him in a childcare centre. She also needs money to buy him shoes and a school bag.
When I heard that, I thought about the $200 bill I recently racked up when I was feeling down - I had splurged on a bag, necklace and earrings.
Mary's troubles and those of others like her really put mine in perspective.
From TODAY, Voices – Thursday, 11-Jun-2009
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