Hospice's 'memory jars' help grieving families heal

Retired civil servant Lisa Ng lost her father to dementia even before he died.

- Chin Soo Fang

Mr Simon Ng, a retired businessman who died at the age of 87 on Jan 23, was diagnosed with stage-four dementia in 2020.

He struggled with heart failure and possibly liver cancer in the last two years of his life.

The family chose not to have Mr Ng undergo a biopsy to detect potential cancer because of his age, and to allow him to live out his remaining years as normally as he could.

“He was already gone before we physically lost him... His dementia had already taken the person I once knew as dad,” Ms Ng told The Straits Times.

“So the grieving process actually started a while back before he passed away this year.”

On Aug 3, Ms Ng attended Rose for Remembrance, a memorial service to honour and commemorate the 920 patients of Dover Park Hospice who died between April 2023 and March 2024.

The annual event was held at the Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation, with close to 120 family members mourning the ones they had lost.