'Before we ask how they lived': Singapore's seniors write their life stories into keepsakes for the people they love

In Toa Payoh — one of Singapore's 'super-aged' towns, where close to a quarter of residents are 65 or older — a group of seniors has been doing something quietly radical: writing their own life stories. The programme, My Story, My Life, run by Direct Life Education with Care Corner Seniors Services, guides older people through a keepsake journal — favourite songs, meaningful places, hard-won lessons — written, drawn, photographed, or told aloud to a trained volunteer who writes it down. The journal becomes a gift: a tangible keepsake for children and grandchildren. A pilot ran this month at Care Corner's Active Ageing Centre at Block 106; the programme is free and aims to reach 20,000 seniors by 2028. 'We shouldn't ask a person how they want to leave before we have asked them how they lived,' said co-founder Jenny Tay. Care Corner's Sharon Tang puts the everyday version of it simply: seniors looking back, and seeing they are surrounded by people who care about them.

SDG 3 · Good health and well-being — Mechanism: community action