Honor

I read this piece of news in the papers. A father sold his home and then worked very hard every day with his wife, making fishing nets to pay off his deceased sons’ debt. Three of his four sons died in a super storm four years ago, owing huge sums of money. The couple is expected to work for years to come, in order to finish paying their sons’ debt. The father said he would do this for his sons. He is honoring his sons by paying their debt. It is not just the love of a father or a strong sense of responsibility that compels the man to do this. I call it honor. He is an honorable man. He is now 82 years old.

I see honorable seniors every day in Hong Kong. They may be old, and some may be a little messy. They are those ordinary people to whom you may not give a second glance when you meet them in the street. Some can be rather peculiar in their behavior, but they are all honorable people to me, just the same. They are respecting life by doing the best they can.

I see many seniors selling all sorts of stuff on the streets. I don’t think they are trying to make money. I doubt they can make good money out of the items they sell—pediclips, hairclips, buttons, rubber bands, candies and so on, which are usually worth no more than a few dollars. What I see is that they are trying to spend their time doing something useful.

An older woman listening to a Walkman and selling goods in a bag; an older man scrubbing the outer shell of an electric fan to remove the rust; a barber cutting hair on a pedestrian walkway under a bridge; a group marking their place every morning outside the train station to collect used free newspapers from passersby for recycling: All these sights tell me about seniors’ ingenuity in finding meaningful occupations for themselves. I find it an admirable virtue.

Senior cleaning rusty fan.

Fan repair king.

Selling phones and other electronic devices.

Seniors collect and recycle newspapers.

Senior retailer interacts with customer.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.