In partnership with gov.sg
SINGAPORE: At around noon on a Thursday, Marlina Isa’s five-room flat reverberates with sharp cries. Her father is resisting the shower again.
Bathing the 83-year-old can take up to an hour and usually requires at least two pairs of hands.
Mohd Isa Kasiran’s health has been in decline since a stroke in 2018 left him with vascular dementia. A series of epileptic seizures since August last year has made both his body and mind increasingly frail.
“He’s a burly man. It can be a real fiasco getting him ready,” Marlina’s husband, Mohamad Alfian Ismail, says.
The commotion soon draws her 82-year-old mother, Maimunah Abd Hamid, from the next room. She is visibly shaken.
“She has irregular heart rhythm,” Marlina says. “Anything might scare her … She’ll be very affected.”
Moments later, the front door opens to her sons spilling in from school, each with something to tell her.
Marlina, 43, is a quintessential member of the “sandwich generation”. She is the primary carer for her two ailing parents, and a mother of three boys.
