“Wow, how come this ‘bus stop’ is so real? I’m at the ‘bus stop’ now,” Shun-yung, 90, said.
Shun-yung is a resident of Melbourne's Elderly Chinese Home Victoria in Parkville and according to the Home's Chief Executive Officer, Minerva Lau, she is mostly shy and not very talkative.
But that all changes as soon as Shun-yung sits on the bench seat at the mocked-up Hong Kong bus stop inside the nursing home.
She immediately begins telling stories and recalling street names from Hong Kong, a city she once called home.
“Though I’ve been living here (Australia) for 30 years, my heart is still deep-rooted in Hong Kong,” Shun-yung told SBS Chinese.
The 'bus stop' at the Elderly Chinese Home in Parkville. Source: 阮佩君攝
Journey to help residents with dementia
Ms Lau told SBS Chinese that the whole idea of restaging a Hong Kong bus stop inside the nursing home with a video wall of 16 monitors playing Hong Kong’s street scenery was a dream come true project for the staff and the residents.
Ms Lau said many of the residents in the nursing home had dementia, greatly diminishing their ability to remember events and people from their past.
She and the staff had wanted to create something that would allow the residents to recall old memories as a kind of therapy for dementia.
It all started with a Hong Kong resident known as “Auntie”, she said.
Auntie would get very agitated and unsettled around sunset, the only thing she could remember was that she had to go to the bus stop to pick up her son.
“We had to keep telling her the bus will come soon,” Ms Lau said
Because Auntie had dementia, it was unsafe and impractical to take her out and let her sit at a bus stop nearby, Ms Lau said.
Then Ms Lau said she and her staff had an idea: why not install a Hong Kong bus stop in the building and let the residents "wait for a bus" inside the nursing home?
The team then began to sketch out a plan, which they emailed to the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB) and asked for the construction of a bus stop with other accessories such as a bus stop pole with bus route information, a seating bench, and a canopy.
They received a positive response from KMB, and the bus company delivered the items requested to the elderly home during the pandemic.
The bus stop was provided by the Kowloon Motor Bus Company Limited (KMB). Source: SBS/Yuki Yen
Addie Lam, KMB's assistant director of communication's, told SBS Chinese that the collaboration was a meaningful one and that he was glad to see senior citizens recalling valuable memories from their time in Hong Kong.
He said he was pleased his company’s contribution through the installation could go some way to help settle the residents’ emotions.
Ms Lau said “Auntie” was at first unsure about the “bus stop” but soon she sat down on the bench and asked Ms Lau to wait for the “bus” with her, Ms Lau said.
They sat there, enjoying their time together while watching the "street views" on the video wall, Ms Lau said.
“I was in tears, the happiness, the sense of joy is beyond words,” she said.
Passing the collective memories to the next generations
Another unexpected benefit of installing a "bus stop" in an elderly home was that it acted as a link between the senior citizens and their children and grandchildren, Ms Lau said.
Mr Fu, 82, came to Australia from Hong Kong many years ago with his family.
He told SBS Chinese that when he was young in Hong Kong, he was very poor and couldn't afford to take a bus ride.
“My son told his children to visit me to know more about Hong Kong,” Mr Fu said.
Mr Fu proudly shows photographs of his grandchildren at the 'bus stop'. Source: SBS/Wan Chor-leung
“He said to his kids the elderly home that grandpa is living in has a place to show them the street views of the city, the city which is full of his childhood memories.”
Mr Fu added that life at their age can be monotonous at times, but small things like this installation added colour to their routine and made him happy.
Actual Hong Kong bus soon to be delivered
While the team at the elderly home and the senior citizens enjoy the fruitful outcome of this project, the seeds of new ideas are germinating.
Ms Lau told SBS Chinese that they intended to have an actual bus delivered from Hong Kong so that residents can take a real bus ride and relive their time in the city.
Another project is to publish a memoir in which their residents share their life stories and pass them down to the next generation.
The bus stop comes complete with an actual timetable. Source: 阮佩君攝
Elderly Chinese Home Victoria CEO Minerva Lau at the bus stop. Source: SBS/Yuki Yen
