You might have come across a post about a conversation a man had with an elderly lady seeking employment opportunities at Sentosa.

The post has been taken down but racked up nearly 20,000 shares before that.

The Ministry of Social and Family Development has uploaded a post on the matter on July 29.

MSF visited the elderly lady to ask if she needs help

In the post, MSF stated that the lady was staying in a five-room flat with her son's family. She worked to supplement her own expenses.

"Our Social Service Office (SSO) colleagues have identified the elderly woman, Mdm L. She is staying in a five-room flat with her son’s family. The family has a domestic helper. Her son provides her with food and shelter but she works to supplement her other expenses. Our SSO colleagues visited her yesterday to see if she needed any help and how we can lend support."

Mdm L, as MSF calls her, is a permanent resident and has not applied for citizenship. She is currently paid S$675 for working part-time in 4-hour shifts. Before Covid-19, she received monthly gross salary of about S$1,300 (excluding CPF) from her employer.

"Due to reduced business volume, her employer had arranged for her and other full-time employees to work part-time as a way to retain staff. She is currently paid $675 for working part-time in 4-hour shifts (or about $6.50/hr). We understand from her employer that when business improves, they will review and reinstate the cleaners’ part-time employment to full-time."

MSF is currently assessing her eligibility for the Covid-19 Support Grant:

"To mitigate the impact of Mdm L’s wage loss during this difficult period, MSF is assessing her eligibility for the Covid-19 Support Grant (CSG), which provides monthly payouts of S$500 - S$800.

As a non-citizen, she does not qualify for Silver Support or Workfare. However, she receives benefits like the Solidarity Payment that are also extended to PRs. In addition, we will support her in other ways. Grassroots organisations will support her with $120 food vouchers monthly for the next six months. We are also arranging for her to get some help for her medical expenses."

MINDEF verified that the elderly lady's elder son died during a freefall training, full compensation paid out

A heart-wrenching part of the viral post was how she had lost her son during an incident with the Singapore Armed Forces.

The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) verified this claim.

"The Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) has verified that Mdm L’s elder son, a regular warrant officer, died during a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) freefall training session in South Africa, in May 2009. Full compensation was paid out to his family. MINDEF and the SAF extend their deepest condolences to the family."

MSF also stated that Mdm L was not aware that she was being photographed, a point the initial post acknowledged.

"We encourage members of the public to please link them up directly with us through our SSOs or any Family Service Centre. In the case of Mdm L, she indicated she was unaware of being photographed or that her comments and photo would be shared in public on social media.

ComCare hotline: 1800-222-0000

SSO locator: www.msf.gov.sg/ssolocator

Family Service Centre locator: www.msf.gov.sg/fsclocator"

Read the full post here.

When Mothership went down to her place of work earlier today to speak to Mdm L, she indicated that she was happy with her current job, and had decided not to pursue the employment opportunity in Sentosa.

Speaking to us over lunch, she also stated that people had actually gone down to her house to try and meet her.

One of the reasons she gave for that was how well her manager treated her. She was made aware of the Facebook post by her son, and was taken aback by her photo being up online, she also requested for us not to post her photo as well.

Top images by Maroof Ahmad via Google Maps & Sentosa.