This evening on the way to pick Sandy up after work I saw this old lady who was wandering in the middle of the cross junction of Telok Ayer Street and Boon Tat Street.
She looked lost in the midst of traffic.
I parked my car at the side of the road where Sandy usually hops on for a ride and walked towards the old lady.
She saw me approaching and with teary eyes she told me she was in need of help. She needed money to pay off debts that piled up because a friend's son borrowed her identity card to get loan from the loan sharks without her knowledge.
I guess at that age it really is unfortunate to be in debt and she needed to seek help in the manner she did - reaching out to the public in the middle of the road.
I asked her how much did she owe and she told me she needed about a hundred odd thus I reached out to my wallet and gave her a hundred dollars.
I also reminded her that it was dangerous to wander on the road and should she really need assistance I could help her approach the police especially if the loan sharks loan sharks are making trouble.
She declined and said the police can be of no help.
I walked back to the car, switched on the engine and carried on waiting for Sandy.
As I was about to take a book out and read, I noticed she wandered back on to the road. This time she tried stopping cars.
I got out of the car and walked up to her again. It did struck me that perhaps the money given to her was not enough and true enough she said she was still short of seventy dollars.
Again I reached out to my wallet and handed her seventy dollars. She smiled and thanked me. For some reasons before I turned around to return to my car, I told her if I saw her standing in the middle of the road once more I will have to call the police so as not to endanger her life and others road users.
She quickened her steps and disappeared into the row of shophouses.
Not long after, I mentioned this to a friend and for some reason she asked me if the old lady was petite with short hair. She described her correctly.
Thinking back, I wondered if I did the right thing by helping the old lady. What if she too was being used by some syndicate to make quick bucks? Would I not be feeding these syndicates and encouraging them to make us of more old folks?
Sandy and I spoke about it and she said something which I realized was quite true.
What if this old lady has dependents at home who are unable to fend or feed themselves due to various medical reasons or disability?
I guess there will always be different school of thoughts on such. To others, I may have been a sucker but to me, I did what I could there and then.
If it were you, what would you do?
