80-year-old cleaning lady at Geylang Bahru hawker centre says it is more troublesome to sort already-returned trays and cutlery

Singapore — After a humbling incident with an elderly cleaning lady at Geylang Bahru Block 69 Hawker Centre, one netizen took to social media to recount the entire incident.

In a Facebook post, one Mr Wong wrote that while having dinner with his companion, an elderly cleaning lady came to remove the trays from his table. When he and his partner told the lady that they would need the tray to return their plates and cutlery to the cleaning station, the elderly woman said that it would not be necessary as she would clean the table once they finish eating.

“It will be even more troublesome for her to push the trolley to the tray return station and send the used cutlery to the cleaning station”.

From Sep 1, diners who do not return their trays and crockery after their meals will be issued warnings and fines, said the National Environment Agency (NEA) in a statement on Tuesday (Jun 22).

NEA had announced in May that it would have a three-month advisory period from Jun 1 to help diners familiarise themselves and adjust to the new rules. During this period, the agency had said that it would not take enforcement action.

Even though diners return their trays and used crockery, cleaners would then have to dispose of leftover food from plates and proceed to sort all of the crockeries.

As the elderly cleaning lady mentioned, they would then have to move trays to the tray return station and send the used crockery – with the aid of a trolley – to the cleaning station for them to all be washed.

In his Facebook post on Monday (Jun 21), Mr Wong noted that the elderly woman looked rather old, and said that she was likely in her late 70s or even 80s”.

To his surprise, the elderly woman came by and offered to buy both Mr Wong and his companion a drink.

“We were all confused but at the same time pretty ashamed of what we were thinking. Something struck my mind. We were having a very spicy bowl of ban mian (noodles) and I was sweating profusely. I ran to her and asked “Aunty, do you mind if I ask you something. Did you want to buy me a drink because you saw me perspiring, in agony?” She broke into a hearty giggle and nodded her head”, he wrote.

He recounted in his post that his experience with the elderly woman was touching and humbling.

Within a day, Mr Wong’s post garnered over 2,100 reactions and 2,300 shares on Facebook.

TISG has reached out to Mr Wong for comment and clarification. /TISG