Seniors Keeping with the Times

In my nearly three years working with Home Helpers Home Care I am often amazed by my clients.  These seniors are continually surprising me with their creativity, stories of the good old days, humor, and willingness to try new things.  Here is one of the most recent surprises.  I’ll be sure to post another one later on this week!

Charlene is 94, but you’d never know it by looking at her or even after having a conversation with her.  Charlene will occasionally use a cane on her “bad days,” but is still managing to maintain her own house with the help of a part-time Home Helpers caregiver.  She stays active and is involved in a knitting groups and other various social groups, so I feel as though she shouldn’t surprise me anymore. Charlene asked me the other day if I knew anything about computers because hers was “being sluggish.”  I went over to her house for a visit and she had not just any computer, but an eMac that she has had for over ten years!

I asked her about the computer and she told me that she got it after having a conversation with a friend of hers about genealogy.  Charlene had been interested in finding out more about her family history and decided that the internet would be the best way.  So she had her son help her pick out a computer and after a lesson or two was doing all kinds of genealogy research online.  She decided that technology was nothing to be afraid of and learned how to email, send attachments, and upload pictures.  It doesn’t just stop there though.  Recently Charlene has learned how to submit articles to magazine and newspapers and has had several of her works published!

Charlene decided that at age 83 she better get with the times and has been doing fairly well with technology for the past ten years.  She said she hopes her computer will last as long as she does.  She even told me that in order to keep it running well she might have to move her hundreds of photos from family to a flash drive or external hard drive.  Boy, I hope I’m like her in 60+ years!