On Saturday we visited Garden of Palms and presented to the elderlies about different kinds of plants. As we were setting the scene up, a few residents started trickling in, and we were surprised to find out that it was one of the older lady’s birthday! After merrily singing happy birthday, we were pleased to see that our audience was very drawn to the different species of deadly plants we brought up in this session, such as the poisonous wolfsbane and the nightshade. Just like a typical discussion section in UCLA, most of the residents contributed thoughtful remarks about the life cycle of flowers and even raised challenging questions regarding the family of plants. They actively engaged with the interactive quiz questions we included on our slides and definitely showcased their impressive knowledge base about certain niche categories of botany!
Towards the end of our presentation, we proceeded to our usual round of encouraging the elderlies to wear our virtual reality headset. Seeing an entire 3D garden unfold in front of them, they sat up in their wheelchairs in wonder and shared with us every detail they noticed during their incredible immersive experience. Initially, Miller, a 75 year-old grandpa was slightly skeptical of his peers’ recommendation of this ‘magical’ VR set that could do ‘miracles’. However, after giving it a shot with the help of our volunteers, Miller completely changed his mind at the end of his experience and passionately gesticulated to us things he saw in that brief 5 minute journey ‘in another world’.
Of course, our trip to Garden of Palms, was not only about one-way presentations. More importantly, it’s about learning who these lovely senior folks are as individuals. When the presentation concluded, we naturally broke up into small groups, with 1~2 volunteers talking one-on-one to the residents.
As for me, I sat down next to an 88 year old lady, whose name was Barbara, and found out that she shared the same love for reading like I do. Through our discussion of the contents of the book, I was so blown away by her clever interpretations and more broadly, a very positive outlook on life. To some extent, she reminded me of my grandma who was always a figure of assurance and generosity. It was genuinely heart-warming to learn that she thoroughly enjoyed talking to me and reminiscing about her young past with someone at a completely different stage of life. It was as if we were building a deep connection which knows no borders divided by the so-called ‘age-gap’ or ‘cultural differences’. Hence, as you can hopefully see, my first visit with Wired for Empathy was a super memorable one, and definitely made me reflect upon the amount of joy both us and the residents got out of this trip by being genuinely interested in achieving our goal of reducing the sense of isolation that may or may not be present in retirement homes.
Before I became part of the team, I remember seeing how Wired was introducing the basics of of VR in the early days to the same cohort of seniors whom we saw on Saturday, but now, nearly all of them are readily accustomed to this technology and were eager to partake in it. Alas, kudos to everyone!
Chanel :)
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