第63章 City life(16)

The travel costs are about HK100 each and we have to keep going back tomake sure the tailors are making the right thing. It’s not efficient, so we’re notmaking very good money.

This may not be the most profitable business but it’s worthwhile. I think morepeople should get a chance to try eco-friendly products. Hong Kong youngstersget the green concept but everything that is green is usually so expensive.

In August we launched an online store on Facebook. It’s only been runninga few weeks but sales are pretty good. Maintaining it is a lot of work, though; toomuch for me.

I’m thinking of splitting the products into two collections: one quick, simpleand inexpensive, the other intricate designs that are a little bit pricier.

Sue Wong Ming-wai was talking to Emma Dai.

September 2, 2010

Bid to make the way to heaven smooth

Volunteers help lonely pensioners have a dignified send-off.

Ming Yeung reports from Hong Kong.

The photograph on top of the altar at the Diamond Hill memorial hall was of a lonelypensioner surnamed Siu.

His funeral had been a simple and silent affair. No religious rituals were performed,no relatives and friends were sobbing in the aisles, and no eulogy was read.

The only mourners who arrived to bow and burn incense, before the casket wastaken away for cremation, were five people who had never actually met Siu - all of themvolunteers from the Banyan Elderly Services Association (BESA), a nonprofit group thathelps single or widowed elderly people in Hong Kong.

In southern parts of China, the banyan tree, with its large, glossy green leaves, is asymbol of long life. It was chosen by the group as part of the organization’s name as thetree complements its mission to provide protection for elderly people, shading them fromthe problems they face in the final stages of their lives.

Chinese people traditionally do not like to think about death, let alone plan for it. Yetfor those with no family, one of the greatest fears is dying alone, with no one to take careof the funeral arrangements.

That is where the BESA comes in. Since launching the Friends of Sunset project in2007, it has been helping lonely pensioners “pass with dignity”.

With six core members, known as “pre-need caretakers”, the group handles everythingfrom identifying the body to organizing the funeral to the client’s specifications, which areagreed by contract.

Other social welfare organizations in Hong Kong also provide similar services, withmost performed by licensed undertakers. What distinguishes the BESA, says its chairmanPeter Nip Yeung-shing, is the quality of care.

“We’re more like the client’s family,” Nip told China Daily, explaining that his staffmembers make regular visits to the columbarium and cemeteries to pay their respects.

It takes seven working days for his volunteers to take over the “after-death process”,which begins with a call from the police or hospital, followed by a visit to the mortuaryand then Diamond Hill to set a date for the funeral and cremation.

Volunteers also apply for a death certificate from the Births and Deaths GeneralRegister Office in Wan Chai.

“Once all the bookings are made, our staff members start arranging the funeral basedon the requests of the deceased,” said Nip. “Volunteers will gather to pay their final respectson the night of the funeral, with the body cremated the next day.”

Handle with care

As the service provided is a sensitive and often difficult one, the BESA chooses itsvolunteers carefully to ensure they suit the job.

“Some people just can’t deal with corpses,” said vice-chairman Susan Lam Kwai-ha.

“We don’t take on every person who comes to us requesting to be a pre-need caretaker. Weneed to access their psychological status.

“If the volunteer is not emotionally stable and mature enough, dealing with the deathof someone, whom he may have known for a while, may have an adverse impact on him.”

One of the misconceptions about the service offered by the BESA is that it is like acoroner, which performs post-mortem examinations, she said, explaining: “We don’t pickup bodies, we just identify them”.

In Lam’s opinion, death is the final destination on life’s journey. “If people accept itas something natural, they will not focus on the sadness,” she said. “We intend to let theelderly die peacefully, not regrettably.”

Lam has had 15 years to train herself to be a “professional and rational” pre-needcaretaker, a duty she first performed when a friend asked her to arrange a funeral of anelderly man who died in a car accident.

If a client receives a social security allowance from the Hong Kong government, thecosts of their BESA-organized funeral - on average about HK11,100 (1,400) - willcome out of the public purse. If not, bill is paid with money from an affiliated charitablefund.

However, Nip said the burial grant of about HK10,000 provided by the city’s socialwelfare department usually fails to cover all the necessary funeral expenses.

After deducting the cost of the death certificate (HK140) and cremation (HK1,300),the remainder is only enough for the basics, such as the coffin, shroud, quilt andtransportation.

Money for other things, such as the funeral hall (HK800) and a place in thegovernment-run columbarium (HK3,000) need to be covered by those providing theservices.

A gray area also exists when dealing with relatively well-off elderly people not eligiblefor the social security allowance, who die without a will and have no one to leave theirmoney to. In such cases, social welfare officials are not responsible for the funeral costs andthe matter is passed to the food and environmental hygiene department.

“The administration should consider updating and fine-tuning the policy,” suggested Nip.

“If a single elderly person dies, his or her funeral expenses should be taken up bythe government, even if he or she doesn’t receive the allowance,” he said. “For deceasedrecipients of the allowance, the burial grant should be increased.”