Where's the trust?

I was at a queue after an elderly lady in NTUC, clearly, she was purchasing daily necessities for her home, she's got canned food, veggies, maggie mee etc on the side a bag of 5kg rice and a tin of biscuit. She asked the cashier if the tin of biscuit can be purchased at a much cheaper price if she hits $25 with her other purchases (the famous Purchase with Purchase deals from NTUC). Cashier nodded her head towards the elderly lady.

After putting the items through the scanner, the elderly lady will have to purchase the 5kg bag of rice in order to make it up to $25!

My heart goes out to this elderly lady, for one, she's really good at saving her $$ because most of the products she purchased were NTUC house brands, hence savings from purchasing other brands. Secondly, she made use of the extra discounts offered to elderly by NTUC on Tuesdays, 5% off their purchases! Thirdly, she bought the tin of biscuits at a discount by chalking up enough $ to qualify for it. Such a smart shopper!

Problem is.... all her stuff put together, is.... very HEAVY!

After I paid up for my tiny packet of gummy bears (to bribe my young niece hee hee), the elderly lady was still struggling to sort out her many shopping bags worth of groceries. So I offered my help. To help her carry to where she needs them to be. I figured, she will probably take a bus/train or at most walk a few blocks away, no big deal for me.

She said "NO, thank you" consistently but was happy by the kind gesture. She said that someone would be meeting her to help her with her stuff. So I thought ok, I left her to continue sorting out her nightmare of about 6 bags.

I was distracted at a corner shop and stopped in there for a minute or two before continuing my walk home... and guess what? The elderly lady has just crossed the roads in front of me, alone! Aiyo! I think she was afraid that I'll ran away with her stuff. And I dun blame her for it.

Again, I walk up to her and offered my services... again she denied it. Well, I guess its hard to believe that there's someone who is wiling to help. But that kampong spirit of helping your neighbors is not so evident in our current HDB homes. We live with suspicion of each one that passes us by. There's little trust in the fellow being next to you anymore. Scary but its true.