I asked which patient left the most impression on her. Judging by her quick but pensive glance on the floor, I sensed that she knew who it was immediately.
Mrs Koh was a home hospice patient in her 90s who lived alone and Ms Miao Lan used to care for her at her residence. One day in 2018, the older woman was hospitalised.
“She called me to say, ‘Miao Lan, can you come and see me? I know my time is quite short, I probably will be leaving tomorrow’.
“I couldn’t believe it because she was still able to talk to me, but I still felt that I needed to visit this patient.”
So she rushed to the hospital the moment her shift at the hospice ended. When she got there, all Mrs Koh asked her to do was to sit beside her and hold her hands. Few words were exchanged.
“At the end of the visit, she told me, ‘Thank you for coming. I’m not afraid anymore’,” Ms Miao recalled.
The next morning, Ms Miao received a phone text message from Mrs Koh’s sister informing her that she had died.
At this point, Ms Miao’s voice quivered slightly during our interview: “I know some patients treat me like family … Usually, patients ask their family members to visit them, (so) if they call you, it means you are a very important person to them.”
