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By the time lunch was over, I was full, but that did not stop her from packing more food for me to take home.<\/p>\n
She told me that this was normal <\/strong>in her home. Whenever she cooks more than her family can finish, she posts on an informal Facebook community she co-founded in 2012, asking if there are any takers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sure enough, I spotted a stash of takeaway bags in her kitchen, ready for the next meal to be shared.<\/p>\n At first, it struck me as a sweet family habit. But the longer I spent with Ms Zarina, the more familiar the pattern became.<\/p>\n For the past 14 years, that instinct to share has extended far beyond her dining table.\u00a0<\/p>\n Through her Facebook group, Ms Zarina and a small group of volunteers have helped hundreds of people with everything from groceries and utility bills to adult diapers and legal advice.<\/p>\n Yet Ms Zarina also knows what it is like to need help herself suddenly.<\/p>\n On Jul 14, 2008<\/span>, Ms Zarina received a call telling her that her husband, a despatch rider, had been involved in an accident and that she should go to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.<\/p>\n “I was quite calm when I reached the hospital,” she said, “but then we were told to go to the mortuary, and I realised he was gone.” \u00a0<\/p>\n On the day her husband was buried, her oldest child had to sit for an O-Level paper. There was barely time to grieve.\u00a0<\/p>\n As her late husband was the family’s sole breadwinner, Ms Zarina, who had been a housewife for about 15 years, suddenly had to raise their three children on her own. They were then aged 16, 14 and nine.<\/p>\n “Losing someone just like that, it took me three to six months to come to terms with what was happening,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I also had to reset my life and my priorities.”\u00a0<\/p>\n In the months that followed, she had to settle her husband’s estate, wind down the delivery business they had been building and navigate paperwork she had never handled before.<\/p>\n More immediately, she needed an income. For the first time, she considered seeking financial assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n She had some savings and wanted only temporary help, but recalled being questioned about her home and the family’s assets. She left without applying.\u00a0<\/p>\n The experience would later shape her belief that people in crisis sometimes need help not indefinitely, but just long enough to regain their footing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n By the time lunch was over, I was full, but that did not stop her from packing more food for me to take home. She…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=93896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/93897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=93896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=93896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=93896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WHEN LIFE TOOK AN UNEXPECTED TURN<\/h2>\n
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