I was at the maid agency three Saturdays ago with Suri*.
No, not to send her back, but I needed her feedback for a maid whom she can work with, for My Mother, who is closing in to 80-years old.
Although doctor gave My Mother a clean bill of health, but normal mobility is sometime handicapped.
Age is fast catching up on her.
Now, she had decided to stay at any of Her Children's houses.
But Her Daughters, except Me, will be in school in the day.
So, the only option is to get a minder to accompany Her.
The Grandchildren are either working or in schools too.
After the selected biodatas of maids willing to look after the aged, I passed to Suri.
She rejected all, except one.
"Kenapa yang itu saja?" I asked Suri.
"Saya pilih yang dari Demak atau Pati saja. Biar Nyai senang bicara."
Brilliant girl!
I had never think of it.
My Mother's Maternal side from Pati and her father from Demak, both in Central Java.
It just so happened that Suri is from Demak too.
Alas, the maid she selected, from Pati, is still in Jakarta.
She will only be available in a month's time, that is, if she pass her test.
There was a transfer maid from Pati, but the first impression said, better not ask her to work.
Her weak and pale look said she should be having a long, good rest.
True enough, she was returned for the third time, all being sick while at work.
Very rare can we find a maid from Demak, being the province having enough for all, according to the agency's boss, Madam Sarah*
A month, too long the wait.
For reasons known to us, Madam Sarah would also prefer us to have a maid from Central Java too.
We had no other choice but to end up choosing another available transfer maid from Surabaya.
If given the choice, the maid from Surabaya will not want to work for the elderly.
Willing or not to be with elderly, the feeling can be nurtured, said Suri.
Before Suri entered into My Sister's household, she knew she will not want if asked to work for elderly too. But because of filial piety, nature took its course.
Before she realised, great concern for My Mother developed naturally in Suri*.
"Ini Suri*?" Asked Madam Sarah.
"Ya, Bu," she replied.
Madam Sarah had failed to recognise Suri, one of her maids, after a lapse of five years.
She realised the total transformation of the girl since five years ago.
She does not look like a maid, nor look Indonesian.
She looks 100% Singaporean, with ordinary youngster's dressing.
Seeing Suri had made her day, said Madam Sarah.
The sight of Suri that night assured her of a good night sleep.
Earlier, for the whole day, Madam Sarah was plagued with a problematic maid.
The whole day she was attending to a maid, whom she said, pushed away good luck.
The maid was about to finish her two-year contract when she was asked to continue her service.
The two toddlers she looked after, four and two-years old, are too attached with her.
The maid laid down her term for extension.
She needs off days, which the employer agreed, for the toddlers' sake.
The employer was at her working place when she received a police call.
She was asked to pick her maid at the police station.
She thought nothing of it, just some innocent offence of littering, she told herself.
But her domestic worker gave her the shock of her life - She was caught with a Bangladeshi man in a very compromising act at the beach not far from her house.
The employer was then shown the maid's handphone by the police.
It shocked her more - Her intimate photos with a male.
Worst shock of all, the four and two-years old toddlers were locked at home.
Just the two of them, to fend for themselves.
******
Pregnant Indonesian Maid Leapt To Her Death
A pregnant Indonesian maid took her own life when she became emotionally upset that her married boyfriend refused to break off with his girlfriend in Batam, a coroner's court heard.
Anis Dwi Rianawati had asked her 45-year-old Malaysian boyfriend to choose between her and his girlfriend in Batam hours before her death.
Her boyfriend requested time to think about it. During their long conversation at his place on Oct 24 last year, Rianawati, 29, had swallowed some health supplements belonging to her boyfriend, who stopped her and kept patting her back to get her to throw out.
Anis lost consciousness for a while and when she came to, he tried to stop her from leaving as he was afraid that she would do something foolish. But Anis managed to get a cab back to her employer's apartment block in Meyer Road. He drove there and called her down to talk things over. She again insisted that he call his girlfriend in Batam but he refused. She tried to call her but there was no response.
She then threatened to take her own life. Her boyfriend followed her into the lift and she threatened to jump when the lift reached the 20th floor. They got to the ground floor and she ran out.
When he found her near the guard house, she again asked him to call his girlfriend to break up with her, but he ignored her and left. That was the last time Anis was seen alive.
Source:
The Jakarta Globe - February 7, 2011
******
A month into her job as domestic worker in July 2008, 24-year old Umi Umiroh from West Java, was plagued by dreams of a crying baby in her employer's semi-detached house.
She did not understand why.
She told her friends about her dreams the next day.
She usually met them at Ling Kwang Home in Serangoon Gardens, the old age home, where she took her employer's mother for therapy sessions twice a week.
They said thing that shocked her - It was the ghost of the previous maid's baby that haunted her.
Later that day, while trimming grass in the garden, she smelled something foul.
Remembering what her friends had said, she related her fears to her employer, Patricia Goh.
The bombshell was dropped - Kirun*, the previous domestic worker, had given birth to a baby.
She then allegedly killed it and buried it in the garden of the two-storey semi-detached house.
A police report was made that same night.
The next day at about 9am, the police, accompanied by four sniffer dogs, spent three hours in the garden. Then the uniform personnel was seen digging up something buried about 15cm deep into the soil.
It was wrapped with a yellow batik cloth.
Some small bones were recovered and analysed by the Health Science Authority.
The baby had allegedly been born prematurely.
It was not known when the baby was buried and no foul smell came from the garden.
None of Patricia's family members had any idea that Kirun was pregnant.
She was always seen wearing loose-fitting batik dresses or oversized T-shirts.
Kirun, married with two children, was employed by Patricia's younger brother in June 2006.
The siblings live with their elderly parents in their house along Hillside Drive.
Kirun's main job was to take the siblings' 82-year-old mother to Ling Kwang Home in Serangoon Gardens, for physiotherapy sessions twice a week.
She had been disabled for three years after suffering a stroke.
They would take a taxi to reach the home, a facility for the elderly, spending about seven hours from 8.30am to 3pm.
Kirun went back to her hometown in Surabaya, Indonesia, on 22nd of June.
.
Umi Umiroh arrived at Ms Goh's house on 6th June, spent two weeks with Kirun before she returned home. Umi was employed because Kirun's contract with them had ended.
It was at the Ling Kwang Home that Umi heard from other maids about Kirun and her premature baby.
She heard from their mutual friends, domestic workers too, about Kirun's confession.
She told her friends she had secretly given birth to a premature baby girl in the toilet of her employer's house. She was allegedly about seven months pregnant at the time.
She did not know what to do with the baby, so she just killed her, and later buried in the backyard.
Occasionally, according to Patricia, Kirun tend to be rude and talked back.
Desite being grumpy, she completed the household chores.
The incident reminded Patricia when she saw Kirun boiling water with ginger to drink.
Perhaps she was nursing a cold, or she could have just given birth then.
The siblings were not strict with Kirun.
She was given Sundays off whenever she asked for them.
******
Kirun, before her departure, had told Umi that she had at least two boyfriends in Singapore.
When asked about her boyfriend, Kirun told Umi about having an abortion after being pregnant for three months.
The aborted baby had been fathered by the Bangladeshi boyfriend.
A week after the chat, Umi saw Kirun taking post-natal
jamu (herbs).
Umi asked her if she was pregnant, as she was concerned about Kirun spending time with her boyfriend. Before she met her Bangladeshi boyfriend, she was seeing a Myanmar national.
Kirun was able to meet the men while waiting for the therapy sessions at the old age home to end.
Umi told her not to do indecent things since she has a husband and two teenage children back home.
Umi told her not to be crazy by becoming pregnant, as she would get kicked out of Singapore.
Kirun shrugged the reminder off.
She had relationship with her Bangladeshi boyfriend who gave her $10 each time they met.
Three days before Kirun left Singapore, she took Umi out to meet her Bangladeshi boyfriend, who asked her to be his girlfriend after Kirun returned home.
Umi Umiroh had left her own baby in the care of her parents to come to work in Singapore.
Her husband died in a car accident a year ago when she was six months' pregnant with their first child.
She never thought such a nice person like Kirun, would have not only an abortion, but went so far as to kill her own living baby.
