Do you have suggestions for keeping daily contact with an elderly loved one besides phone calls?
My father lives alone. He’s 83. He’s fairly healthy but his blood sugar levels have been fluctuating lately, at scary levels. He almost went into a diabetic comma this morning and could barely test his levels. It was at 43. He doesn’t know how he was able to test himself. He drank orange juice, took his insulin, and was better by evening.
Long story short, we were trying to think of a way to contact each other daily besides a daily phone call. He doesn’t text. We were thinking through Facebook somehow? Do I need to get over to his home and show him how to text? We can’t do daily calls because I use prepay and my minutes are sparse.
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11 Answers
Does he have internet at all? If yes then a $49 Kindle will keep him connected and busy. My 93 year old MIL uses one for sending emails and pictures back and forth. We even video chat.
My son sends pictures of the baby (her great grandchild) almost daily.
He has internet and Facebook. I send him messages occasionally on Facebook. I would send them more but he says he can’t respond at times. He has a very old computer. I’m thinking he needs an update/new computer.
Is there no chance of one of you moving closer to the other?
@ZEPHYRA That was the plan until my immediate family needed help and we need to move farther away, closer to the resources we need. My father has decided to try to sell his home and move closer to his two eldest daughters in Nevada, but his home has foundation problems in an area that’s prone to mudslides. It’s a tough sell.
A friend of mine kept in touch with her 80-something dad with Skype. Domestic Internet calls with Google Voice or Skype are free.
Facebook voice calls and video chat are free over wifi.
Gmail has hangouts that should be free. I think Whatsapp lets you make phone calls for free – you could look into that. And as Jay says, Skype.
Our experience is that as people age they are less and less prone to using modern technological advances, usually claiming they are too old to learn new tricks.
Letter writing, while not usually a daily occurrence, is always appreciated by older folks. They enjoy getting something in the mail; cards, letters, it doesn’t matter what.
I recently found some correspondence between my wifes uncle and the family from his time in the military during the Second World War. He spent his service time in Iraq and some of the momentos he kept (service newspapers, post card booklets etc) are extremely interesting, mentioning places that are still in the news today. Prior to being drafted he had been a farmer, the child of farmers. It was amazing to me how mundane his correspondence was, mainly about the weather and perhaps notes on the plant life around the base and in town. Pretty basic fare. The return correspondence was much along the same lines with perhaps a note on which family member or friend might have dropped by or been seen in town.
Unfortunately, my wife did not come from a family of great prose writers, but it is interesting to seen these writings after 70 plus years and get an idea of what was important to them..
Depends how close you are geographically.
My cousin goes to her dad’s for coffee every day to catch up and check up.
I got my mom a job right next door to my job, so I could do the same.
Visits are better. Letters are better than email.
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