Margaret

The Traveller; The Helper; The Photographer

“When we have time, we should help.”

A strong advocate of giving back, Margaret is often seen in her bright yellow volunteer tee at Loving Heart Multi-Service Centre where she is an active volunteer. Nonetheless, she has volunteered at many organisations since she retired from her job at Temasek Polytechnic -- she was a librarian for 30 years. Growing up in a farm, Margaret recalled fondly the ease of farming her own food. She would spend her days between schoolwork and helping out at the farm. As Singapore developed, Margaret and her family got relocated to another farm, before eventually moving to an HDB flat.

Today, she stays in an HDB in Jurong but reminisces the old days in the kampung. She laments that the layout of her current HDB block makes it hard to have interactions with her neighbors. As such, she takes walks around the neighbourhood, participate in morning exercises and volunteers to make new friends.

She is also an avid traveler and likes to document her travels through photographs – including her trip to China in 1982. She recounted travelling via Hua Dong Xian – a train line – as direct flights to China were not available then. Her photographs of the majestic snow-capped mountains at Hubei took my breath away. I wish I could have embarked on the same journey too! P.S. she also loves to take photographs of pretty flowers everywhere!