Chinese New Year (CNY) is coming soon and we all know what that means!
Other than the angbaos that we’ll happily receive or, sadly have to give out, and the new outfits that we’ll get to wear, there’s also something that we have to do.
That’s right, it’s spring cleaning.
While most of us would just ensure that the inside of our house is sparkling clean and free of mess, this elderly couple had other thoughts. They wanted the outside of their house to be clean too, even if it was at the expense of their lives.
18 Floors Above Ground
According to a 41-year-old witness who would only like to be referred to as Liu, an elderly woman was standing on the window platform of her 18-storey HDB unit in Toa Payoh and cleaning her windows from the outside.
18 floors above ground level. Wow.
It was around 6pm on 4 January, Saturday, and he got a shock when he saw this.
He called Lianhe Wanbao and told them about this incident, not forgetting to snap a few photos of what he saw too. He said, “It’s dangerous to do this, it’s very unwise, and you could lose your life if you’re not careful.”
Intrigued by this news, a reporter set out to find the elderly couple’s house for an interview. Upon knocking on their door, an elderly man answered it. He was a 73-year-old retiree, and would only like to be known as Mr Zheng.
After a few questions, he admitted that the woman who was photographed cleaning the windows was indeed his wife.
He clarified and said, “We crawl out and wipe the window once a year. I used to wipe it myself every time, but my leg was hurting that day, so my wife crawled out and wiped the window for me.”
Do They Have Any Regard For Safety?
According to him, he and his wife have been living in that unit for 45 years and would always clean their windows on the platform like what his wife did before the new year. He added that they do take note of their safety, and as a safety precaution, they only clean their windows when the weather is good.
Seeing as to how it didn’t rain that day, his wife quickly seized the opportunity to climb out and wipe the windows. She was apparently done within half an hour.
Regardless, Liu noted that the HDB area has always been very windy. He believes that even if it’s just cleaning once a year, it should not be done because anything can happen. He then expressed hope that the family of the elderly couple would prevent them from cleaning the windows in this manner in the future.
That’s right everyone. Spring cleaning is important, but your life is definitely more important. A dirty window is not worth risking your life over. You may think that it’ll never happen to you but you’ll never know.
