Prawn Village Hawker: Why I’m Closing Stall To Be A Nurse During Covid-19 Crisis

After our first story went viral, Anson was suddenly “flooded” with questions from anxious customers wanting an update on his stall. In response to the queries, Prawn Village’s Facebook page posted an announcement regarding the closure news last night (Feb 17).

It stated: “Thank you everyone for your feedback and patience after the News [sic] about Anson going back to Nursing. His initial intention is to close Prawn Village by end March.

But we heard you and Anson is meeting with groups of people to discuss if there are ways to continue it. Otherwise, he would wish to go back Nursing [sic] as soon as possible.

However, nothing is concrete at this moment. Once again, we seek for your patience and wait for our updates [sic].

Prawn Village will continue till further notice.”

We got in touch with Anson again to clarify the post, and he decided to speak to us. He shares that he has already planned to wholly give up his stall on his part by end-March. But he is currently in discussion with “a few interested parties” who could potentially continue Prawn Village’s thriving biz, after overwhelming response from his regular customers who didn’t want his efforts as a hawker to go to waste.

“People thought I’m using this as a platform to gain business,” he muses to us. “They interpreted that after the [Covid-19] virus dies down, I will come back to do prawn mee again.” He firmly clarifies that he will “not be involved” with the stall permanently after March, and should the discussions fall through, he’ll nonetheless shutter his shop for good and return to his former nursing job (Anson is a trained paramedic who specialised in elder care at National University Hospital where he worked during his nursing days).

While Anson says cooking is still his “passion” (he currently wakes up at 2.30am six days a week to prepare the prawn broth for his noodles), he acknowledges that “it’s something I can do in my spare time, unlike nursing”.

He adds, “I know I’m more needed in nursing now. It’s a profession that I was trained in. It’s in me to do things for people. I seldom do things for myself. I think most nurses will think this way. This is how we were trained, to ca​​​​​​​re for others, nurse them back to health and be selfless.” He also stresses that he is “not helping” but “contributing” to the healthcare force.

We ask Anson about his plans after the Covid-19 storm is over, and if he intends to continue being a nurse. He replies, “There are many more unknown diseases ahead. I went through SARS, H1N1 and MERS. While I still can, I hope to be part of [the healthcare force] for the rest of my life.”

UPDATE: Prawn Village’s last day of operations is March 15, 2020.

PHOTOS: AIK CHEN/ PRAWN VILLAGE'S FACEBOOK