A woman from TTSH QA Dept called me. The call was a weird one, considering that it should have been considered a professional call. I had to prompt the person before she spoke and told me she's calling from her dept in TTSH, it wasn't exactly the best service. However, what was appalling wasn't the way she made the call.
"Is Tham Kum Chew there? May I speak to her?"
Believer me, in Chinese, it sounded much less polite.
Whatever the language she spoke in, it gave me the biggest shock. I never expected her to come out and ask such a thing. I epected maybe a qn or two about their service or even their sms reminder service but I never dreamed that she would have asked me for my Grandmother when she had passed away 2 weeks prior in their charge. The death certificate was issued by them for goodness sake. Were they that lazy and insensitive to not check before they called. I'm aware they often made random survey calls, but this tops it all! How could they?
When I was silent she almost asked again.
Then I replied that she had passed away and she mumbled an apology and quickly ended the call.
I might have turned white or started tearing or something (or maybe cos they overheard the convo?) cos Zhixian and Xinrong, whom I was with, sensed something wrong and started semi-consoling me.
It's hard to move on. I sometimes wish I could cry and mourn and be miserable all the time but that's not an option. Life has to go on, we celebrate the living, not live in memories of the dead. That does not mean however that it's going to be easy, when everything one sees and hears can remind one of their deceased loved ones.
I can very jolly well do without insensitive QA officers to rub salt in my wound and intensify, or remind me, of my lingering pain...