a random act of kindness

[Poke-u-pine]

Hi.

I guess most of us are familiar with the name "Esther Mok".

Those of you who are of the opinion that it is NOT her fault,
those of you who empathise with her,
those of you who understand what a hard time she must be having dealing with the death of her parents and pastor,
dealing with the guilt,
I appeal that you please go the extra mile and pen her a few words of encouragement

Does not have to be a long letter, even a few words will do.
Could be simply "Dear Esther, I hope you will be strong".

I'm sure you can get together and send her a card signed by a few of you, or something like that

She has been isolated for more than a month now, and these words of encouragement will help her.

She did not do anything wrong. When she went to HK there were no travel advisories in place. This could have happened to anyone of us, we could have gone to HK on a family trip, as a getaway during CNY, or even just to shop for camera equipment.
She is a victim herself.

If you are the sort of person who MUST blame someone, blame the authorities in China who could have let the world know about SARS as early as November LAST year.

Thank you for reading this.

Items can be sent to
11 JALAN TAN TOCK SENG
SINGAPORE 308433,
pls specify that it is for Esther

No flowers pls, she cannot accept them due to the pollen that some flowers contain

 

[Silverelf]

Will it add extra strain on TTSH's now lean staffing? I mean I want to send her some stuff but don't want to overwork the poor staff there....

 

[YSLee]

Yea, poor thing.. she lost her parents too. All because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and it wasn't her fault; how was one supposed to know?

 

[Poke-u-pine]

Hi Silverelf

I'm not sure if it will add to the TTSH staff's burden.
I don't know how their mailroom/ admin works.
Hopefully they sort the mail, put all those meant for those
in the SARS wards and then send it up [cos' then they only have to go up once]

If you are worried about adding to their burden, perhaps you and a few friends who are willing to reach out to Esther could send your items together

Thank you for being willing to take the time to do this

 

[Silverelf]

Hmm... I shall see what is most suitable. Anyone contributed to the Courage fund?

 

[Poke-u-pine]

There was a letter in The Straits Times Forum page
[14 April 2003].

The writer, Jonathan Goh, was speaking on how they should stop publishing her name.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/forum/story/0,4386,183100,00.html?

Which is something I agree with. I'm sure the press knows that was an error on their part [or at least an insensitive action]. Afterall, they haven't named most of the other "super spreaders" recently, referring to them not by name but by the term "index case" or in one case by the person's initials only

I'm wondering if it would be better to appeal to the media to stop publishing her name so that she and her family need not continue to face unnecessary stress each time her name appears.

This would help her indirectly & it would not take up any of TTSH's resources.

What do you think?

The Straits Times Forum can be reached at stforum@sph.com.sg
Or fax: 6319-8289
Please include your full name (as in IC), your address and a telephone contact number. For women, please indicate Miss, Mrs or Ms.

If you'd rather NOT have your letter published in the papers, but would like to appeal to the media to leave her in peace, send an e-mail to SPH
List of e-mail adds can be found at
http://www.sph.com.sg/contact/media_contact.html