97YO Elderly Whose Image is Shared Widely on FB Opens Up; Has Been Selling for 37 Years

Even if you’re a stray cat that often waits along Tampines Road for your servants to bring food to you every day and usually DGAF about what’s happening around you, you’d have come across this image that’s both heartbreaking yet a tad suspicious:

Back then, our editors didn’t allow any of us to write about it as it might cause more harm than good, given that the authorities might cramp down on her since she most probably operates without a license.

Well, every other media wrote about it, and our editors scolded us for not picking it up.

Tough working here.

But here’s a little context lest you’ve not read about it: The elderly, who’s 97, allegedly bought fruits from a nearby Sheng Siong supermarket to resell at a higher place nearby. For some reason, the Facebook poster somehow managed to get her backstory. She allegedly did this for a living.

The post got viral at an amazing speed; as of today, it has well over 11K shares.

Soon after, people who live near the area provided another side of the story: that the elderly is allegedly from a rather well-to-do family, could be rude sometimes and doesn’t seem to do it for the money.

The Facebook user then updated his post, adding that “we don’t only help the poor, right?” However, he did not clarify why he had claimed that the elderly is doing this for a living.

And now, two days later, the elderly has spoken.

Kind of.

Selling Fruits Because It’s Fun

The Internet is filled with many kinds of people.

There’s the kind who’ll claim to go help the elderly online, posting long-form essays of how heartbroken he is after seeing the image and pledging to donate $1 million to her, but went to club later that night instead. #wokeculture #thanksobama

Then there’s the other kind who’ll just go help quietly.

Thankfully, this viral post attracted both the first kind and the second kind. Two hours after the post went viral, the elderly had sold all her fruits.

Nice to see that things are going well.

But why is she doing that? Is she really doing it for a living? And how expensive are her fruits?

Thankfully, CNA Insider went to her “stall” to find out the truth, for the number of rumours spreading around is pretty overwhelming.

For a start: how much do the fruits cost? A papaya there can cost up to $11—when you can get it for less than $5 elsewhere.

Apparently, she’s indeed 97 years old, and has been peddling the fruits in the area for a whopping 37 years—that’s like since 1982.

Just for your info, the first Sheng Siong outlet was open in 1985 at Ang Mo Kio, so she might have got her numbers wrong or she used to source her fruits from elsewhere.

According to the elderly, she used to rear pigs and chickens in a kampong—yes, you little ones, Singapore used to have many kampongs.

And the reason why she’s selling fruits there? She claimed that it was fun, and that her home was hot.

In addition, she wasn’t even aware that her image had gone viral.

She has many kids and grandkids, and even had seven great grandkids.

Words from People Who Knew Her

The elderly, known as Mdm Teo, got visits from some of her old regulars after the viral image and it turns out that she’s actually pretty friendly.

When a regular came with a toddler, Mdm Teo spoke to the toddler just like your overly friendly grandma: “Have you eaten? Do you want to have some porridge?”

She even took an image with the toddler, flashing an uncle-killer smile.

According to Mdm Teo’s neighbor, she would sell her products at different spots in the vicinity, and either walked or took a taxi to her spot. When asked how she would be going home, she said that she had just turned down an offer from her son to drive her home.

However, her son declined an interview with CNA Insider.

Nevertheless, here’s what we can learn from this entire story: what you see online might not be what’s really happening on the ground.

Stop living in the Internet and go out more often.