In traditional Chinese society, large families of three or four generations lived together under the same roof. In this way, older members would be taken care of, and in turn they could help around the house or take care of the smallest children while the parents went out to work. However, with the rapid urbanization of modern Taiwanese society (a third of the island's population live in the Taipei metropolitan area), nuclear families of parents and children are living in small but expensive city apartments. More and more senior citizens are being left out. Newspapers continually trport incidents of forgotten old people dying alone. Loneliness and helplessness are two common features of senior citizens living alone.

Even if their families do not support them, it may still be possible for senior citizens to feel love and care from their neighbors. Government welfare policies and private charity organizations could also combine human and financial resources to provide complete material and spiritual support.

Recently, Master Cheng Yen has been encouraging all people to step out of their homes and become concerned with the welfare of their neighbors. In particular, people should assist their elderly neighbors who need help, or simply chat with them so as to break down the sense of alienation in modern society. In this way, even if they live alone, they need not be lonely.

Nevertheless, meeting the daily needs of lonely old people is only the first step. We should train volunteers to help the elderly, and we should also inspire public respect and love for old people. We should further respect the elderly as social resources and enable them to become involved in their own communities.

At the same time, old people do not belong to an underprivileged class that depends on social assistance. There are many old people, such as those described in the following stories, who create new values of life and continue to learn and develop new interests. They made early plans for their retirement and are making good use of their time to help other people. Some of them have even willed their bodies for medical use, so that their bodies can be fully used even after death.

We can thus see that if people make proper plans, they can still live comfortably in their old age. As for lonely old people who have no one to care for them, we sincerely hope their neighbors will lend a hand and take care of each other. Helplessness and loneliness are not merely problems for old people, but the responsibility of our entire society. We hope that the recent attention given to this question will not be just a passing thing, but that care for the elderly will become a constant part of our daily lives.

Love the Elderly as Your Own Parents
Bringing the Community Together: Mr. Chen

By Ho Chen-ching

Mr. Chen lives in an abandoned market in Yungho, Taipei County. He was born in mainland China ninety-two years ago. His wife died very young, leaving him two sons. However, the older son died in a shelling barrage between mainland China and Taiwan in 1958 while serving in the military in Kinmen, a small island just off mainland China. Chen's second son is mentally handicapped and wanders around the city. He only returns home when he remembers his old father.

Chen used to make a living from collecting and selling junk and from the army pension he collected from his older son's death. But as he grew older, he could no longer go out to collect junk, and the pension only lasted for twenty years. He then had to rely on Mrs. Chiang, an old woman living nearby, to give him some food occasionally. However, this was not a good way to provide long-term assistance. Finally, Mrs. Chiang asked Tzu Chi to help Chen.

Helpful Neighbors

The first time Sister Pan brought Chen a hot meal, he was in good spirits, but he had been injured by a recent fall and he was unable to control his bodily functions. Looking around his tiny home, Sister Pan thought about what he needed the most. She decided that money was useless to him, but regular meals, assistance with daily details and spiritual comfort were the most important.

Because Chen still had his younger child, who theoretically was responsible for supporting his father, he couldn't apply for low-income assistance. This child had to undergo psychological assessment to determine that he was unable to support his father. The situation was quite complicated and couldn't be solved right away.

Sister Pan started by improving Chen's living environment. Besides bringing him food, she also taught him how to clean up his home and how to use adult diapers. She taught him step by step how to take care of himself. This teaching process also allowed Chen to gain a sense of dignity and confidence-he was no longer a frail, old man who needed help with everything.

From time to time, Sister Pan would visit Chen or phone to see how he was doing. However, she and other Tzu Chi members could not visit him every day. Sister Pan wanted to find a nursing home for him, but he didn't want to go for fear that his son would not be able to find him if he moved. Sister Pan decided that it was people around him who could help him the most, so she started to see if there was anyone in the neighborhood who could help him on a long-term basis.

The local district official was the best choice for this job. He had official authority, and he had always helped enthusiastically when Tzu Chi members came to visit Chen. When the official saw how zealously Sister Pan took care of the old man, he also started to help with the problem of getting a psychological assessment for Chen's son.

Chen had a friend, an army captain, who lived nearby. It was said that this captain's wife had borrowed a large sum of money from Chen but had not returned the money yet. Everyone agreed that they should be the ones to take care of him, so Sister Pan went to visit this couple. The wife felt embarrassed about not having returned the money yet, so she quickly agreed to help out. Thus, along with Mrs. Chiang, the district official and Tzu Chi members, there was lots of help for Chen. Sister Pan remarked, "As long as the available resources are utilized properly, many people would like to help. They only need to know when and how to help."

Alone But Not Lonely

Currently, that district official is in charge of the care work. He has arranged with a noodle stall nearby to provide lunch and dinner for Chen, who thus does not need to worry about his meals. The captain's wife also comes to help him and clean his home. Chen can now look after his own personal hygiene. The squalor that we saw before has been replaced by the scene of a physically and psychologically healthy old man in a clean, comfortable environment.

Media reports of old people living by themselves have spread like wildfire. What the viewers see are mostly images of poor, sick, abandoned old people who die without anyone knowing or caring. Not all old people who live by themselves have been abandoned by cold-hearted family members. Some may just be eccentric, some may not get along well with their families, some may be single or divorced.

"We should not just start looking after lonely old people when one or two cases show up in the news," said Teng Ling-ling, director of the Tzu Chi Taipei branch social work division. "The problem of these lonely old folks should be treated as an everyday phenomenon, and we should continue looking after them in the same way that we help other needy people."

There are many organizations that specialize in helping old people. Therefore, when we provide any services, we should make sure that there is no overlapping of resources and that the work is divided according to professional expertise.

A lonely old person may have problems with finances, food, medicine, nursing or home services. Tzu Chi can provide the best help with finances, spiritual comfort and human resources, but cases requiring long-term home care, for instance, will be referred to institutions that specialize in helping senior citizens. Tzu Chi members do not have any professional training in this area. Moreover, the existence of these institutions means that there is no need to duplicate efforts.

At the same time, other institutions may seek Tzu Chi's help with finances or manpower. This kind of cooperation and reorganization of resources among various institutions is the current trend in social work.

Another important task is to raise the level of public awareness. Many incidents such as those reported in the news could be prevented. It is better to prevent them from happening than to attempt to solve these problems after they have happened. If we can make everyone recognize the importance of caring for the elderly in and around their own homes, there won't be so many problems with old people who live alone.

Tzu Chi volunteers have recently been reorganized to work in their own communities. Besides making home visits, they also hold community health promotion activities, such as free blood pressure testing, to teach the elderly to look after their health. Tzu Chi volunteers even promote the active use of "elderly resources": they encourage old people to participate in community activities or to become community volunteers. This not only provides a more varied, interesting lifestyle for the elderly, it can also increase opportunities for old people to interact among themselves. Even more importantly, it can give them a positive attitude towards their final years.

Life with a Mouse
Grandfather of Information: Wang Cheng-shih

By Lou Ya-chun

Never believe that playing with computers and surfing the World Wide Web are the special domain of young people. At seventy-eight, Wang Cheng-shih is still as skillful as any kid. He not only learned Chinese input methods and computer animation, but he has even set up his own web site. For this, he received a "Grandfather of Information" award from an information science exhibition center.

His Own Web Site

Wang has had emphysema for five or six years. He gets out of breath very easily and he can't leave home. Someone even foretold that he would only live to seventy-five, but he shattered that prophecy when he turned seventy-six. Then some friends suggested that he find something to do, but what? "How about a computer?" a friend suggested.

Wang's friends started looking for a computer, a scanner, CD-ROM disks, and other related equipment. "Everything you see here came with my friends' help," he told me. "I didn't have any spare money to buy this stuff."

After getting all the equipment, he started learning DOS, basic operations, some Chinese input methods, etc. When he turned seventy-seven, he went into multimedia. He learned to use a scanner and CD-R disks. Then, he learned Windows 95 and how to create a homepage and how to set up a Web site. That same year, he put up an Internet site called "Pei-yeh-lin" ("palm leaf forest," from the leaves that the first sutras were written on). You can find it at www2.seeder.net.tw/liwon/james.htm.

When you enter the site, the contents all center around literature and Buddhism. There are pages with paintings done by his wife. There is also a page with his poems that detail his daily life and the joy of learning computer.

Open-Minded About Life and Death

Wang began to study Buddhism after his retirement. He considers the computer as a tool to propagate Buddhism, and there are some pages on his site about the religion. Besides providing a space on the Web for people to discuss Buddhism on-line, Wang also hopes to put the Book of Changes, a Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary and Buddhist mantras on CD-ROMs. "If you use the technology well for Buddhism, you can cleanse people's minds. Storing the Buddhist teachings on CDs is a good way to propagate Buddhism."

Since he began to learn Buddhism, Wang has become more open-minded about life and death and about his illness too. "I've lived long enough. We all have to die anyway."

I asked him if his casual view of death was related to his study of Buddhism. "Actually, studying Buddhism is learning about life and death. In the past, I used to say that I didn't fear death, but in fact I was terrified of it. Now I am truly free from it."

Two months ago, Wang had another heart attack. His heart ached, he was out of breath, his heart was palpitating, and he was sweating all over. In the past, he would place the medicine under his tongue and tell his wife to send him to the hospital. "But it was different this time. I thought that I was almost eighty years old, so I didn't need to be sent to the hospital. Who doesn't die anyway? Besides, I had nothing else to worry about, so why shouldn't I face death calmly?"

At that moment in the middle of his heart attack, Wang suddenly thought that in the past, there were people who died while meditating. Why not try it? He sat up, crossed his legs and chanted a Buddhist mantra. Slowly he relaxed and could concentrate. "At that moment, I had no thoughts about life, death, time or sensation." It was probably the relaxation of the mind that allowed his whole body to relax completely and the blood to circulate throughout the body. One simple meditation resolved the crisis. When he later told his wife about it, she smiled. "It would have been great if I had found you dead this morning. Then there would have been no need to go to the hospital with the tubes and oxygen mask and electric shocks."

Wang laughed. "If I die in a sitting position like this, please make sure that I am sitting up straight." Upon hearing this, she retorted, "You're already weird enough when you're alive, and you want to go on being weird after you die!" Their passion for each other was very obvious.

Ill but not suffering, old but not frail, Wang enjoys every day as it comes. His daily routine involves studying Buddhist scriptures, surfing the Web and reading the mail. His wife paints in a small room of their simply furnished old apartment. A fulfilling spiritual life like this is the couple's richest wealth.

Plan Your Retirement as Early as Possible
A Man of Many Interests: Lin Chin-hsiung

By Lai Li-chun

He loves bird-watching. He has books about birds, pictures of birds, stamps with birds on them, etc. Don't bother trying to find anything else-almost everything in his home is related to birds.

He loves traveling. He has been to the United States, Great Britain, France, Japan, etc. Don't bother counting-he has traveled to more than ninety countries.

He loves making new friends. He is familiar with the old, young, writers, artists, etc. Don't bother counting-he has all kinds of friends.

Your first thought may be that a person like this must be a celebrated artist or a famous writer. He isn't. Lin Chin-hsiung, board member of the Taipei Wild Bird Society, is a fifty-year-old bachelor. However, he knows how to live his life. He loves to compose his life into a melodious symphony, and he never stops creating new musical notes.

A Man of Many Interests

When we approached the aging, five-story apartment house that day, we noticed plants growing profusely, their fragrance soothing our bodies and minds. As we walked up the stairs to the fourth floor, we came across an oil painting, a traditional Chinese painting, a scroll of Chinese calligraphy, and other art works. It was like climbing through a long art gallery.

In Lin's living room, two traditional Chinese paintings of birds hung on the wall behind his chair, symbolizing the union of art and nature in his personality. He talked about his life like a child vividly describing something that just happened. It was quite hard for us to imagine how a person like him, who only had twenty-four hours a day like the rest of us, was able to have so many hobbies-bird watching, traveling, collecting, gardening, writing, painting, etc. It was also difficult to imagine that Lin, who was over fifty years old, could have so much energy to carry out his favorite pursuits.

"I am interested in so many things because I want to know many different people," Lin explained. "If you want to know Lin Huai-min, the famous Taiwanese choreographer, you must understand some art to talk with him." Then why did he like to make friends? "When you learn to get along with all kinds of people, you won't feel lonely." To him, having so many pastimes and friends is the way to enrich his spiritual life and expel loneliness.

Married to Birds

When Lin was fifty-five years old, the President Hotel in Taipei was just about to promote him to deputy manager, but he chose to retire to give himself more time to carry out his hobbies and also to do volunteer work. This choice was not made on a sudden impulse or out of some romantic notion, but to realize a childhood dream.

"I was poor when I was young and I started working when I was nineteen. I always planned to save a lot of money while I was still young and to retire when I turned forty or fifty, so that I could have more time to volunteer and to carry out my interests." Besides engaging in his hobbies, he is also a full-time volunteer for the Taipei Wild Bird Society. He is a tour guide for visitors on weekends and holidays, and he holds all sorts of lectures, activities and press conferences.

Bird-watching is his oldest and most favorite hobby. He joined the Taipei Wild Bird Society in 1936, when people still had no idea what bird-watching was. At that time, the society had just been established for two years, but Lin had already begun bird-watching well before that.

His affection for birds can't be matched. Besides writing books and doing research on birds, he has also collected a lot of bird artifacts in his tiny "museum" at home: bird sculptures, Chinese and English books on birds, stamps, coins, clothes with birds' pictures on them, etc. Even the paintings on his walls are all about birds too. It is no wonder that Wu Tsun-hsien, former chairperson of the Wild Bird Society, would say, "He is married to birds." Through bird-watching, Lin has acquired spiritual fulfillment and made quite a few friends.

Even his passion for travel can't be matched. The fact that he has traveled to more than ninety countries would stun any flight attendant. When he was still working at the hotel, he would put his vacations and public holidays together and travel overseas with friends two or three times every year. Now that he is retired, he has even more time to travel. At that rate, he might be able to visit all the countries in the world!

Talented But Simple

When Lin is not bird-watching or traveling, he rides his bike in the early morning to the Peitou district of Taipei to enjoy the famous hot spring spas, and then he goes shopping in the market. After that, he spends his day reading books and newspapers or searching for treasures in a flea market. He remarked that some of the items in his collection come from overseas, but some of the really rare items are from the flea markets. In the evenings, he takes walks or watches the sunset from his rooftop. Thus his days go by, relaxed, easy and fulfilling.

Middle-aged people often tend to have all kinds of physical problems, but Lin is still quite healthy. How does he do it? "Whenever I begin to feel sick, I drink more water, eat more fruit and get more rest. Going for a walk after a meal is better than owning a drugstore." It is such a simple, useful way to maintain health.

Lin's talent is widely admired. He graduated from the Chinese department of Soochow University in Taipei, but then he studied horticulture in the graduate school of Taiwan National University. After he graduated, he went to work in the hotel. Now when he has spare time, he writes children's books and books on birds. He is also interested in photography and art.

For a person with so many talents, he has a rather simple view on life. He said, "I feel people should reserve more time for themselves instead of devoting themselves completely to their jobs. If a man retires when he is in his fifties, there are only some twenty years of life left to enjoy. It's not enough!"

He is not concerned about death either. He intends to move to a nursing home when he is older, and when he dies he wants to donate his organs as his final contribution to society.

When he saw us off after the interview, he told us happily that he has a new interest now. "I came across a group of people collecting rocks at the beach the other day. I found that quite fascinating, so I went over and got to know them. I will go rock-collecting with them in the future."