Yippee Did (or Mom Learns to Text)

Mom's youngest sister texted me this summer to let me know that my parents had arrived safely in New York for a family reunion, but also that Mom wanted me to know she and Dad now had a cell phone--"just for emergencies"--so not to worry as much about their drive home a few days later.  My parents had never had a cell phone.  My parents have never tried an answering machine.  My parents have never used computers.  Before I could even think of a response, my phone pinged with another text from my aunt.  "Your dad says you're probably shocked."  Ha!  Yesssssss.  :)  

As predicted, though, it really was "just for emergencies," and since there--thankfully--wasn't one on their trip back, Mom and Dad still hadn't done more with their phone even by the end of October than charge it every few days.  When I came home at Halloween, though, I decided to change that--because if they weren't comfortable using it, they wouldn't remember how to do anything with it even during--and especially during--an actual emergency.  While Dad watched a ball game, Mom and I snuggled under a blanket on the couch with both our phones and I taught her how to text me.  Ping! as her first message came through to me, misspelled due to her tremors.  What she had been trying to write, I don't remember, but it came through as "Yippee did!"  I wrote back as we laughed, and although she was sitting beside me watching me write back to her, she still cried out, "OOH!  Neat!"  when she heard her phone chime with her new text from me.  :)  After we'd written back and forth a few times, giggling all the way, and with stubbornly uninterested Dad shaking his head in the background--although I haven't given up on him yet, oh no, never--I texted my younger brother and asked him to text Mom.  He not only wrote her, but also passed along new baby pictures, and that was all it took.  :)  Mom was hooked.  Mom had texted him, her youngest sister, and her oldest brother by the time she went to bed that night, she texted me the above picture of her and Aunt Laurie with sweet Vickie soon after, and a few days after I'd returned here, she texted to tell me that she had called Aunt Laurie to talk her into getting a cell phone so that we could all keep in touch that way.  :)  ♥  Soon enough, then, Aunt Laurie was sending me a Thanksgiving morning greeting, and I was sharing pictures with her of my newly-redone wall and curtains here.  Aunt Laurie texted back with a photo of her sweet green kitchen. 

A week ago, she followed up with a photo of her Christmas tree.  ♥

Mom followed suit and sent us both photos of her own tree.  ♥

And now we're all in regular contact this way, texting almost every day.  I think you know how sweet this is for all of us, and how proud I am of my mom.  Aunt Laurie had emailed before and has had a digital camera for years, so it wasn't quite the leap for her as it was for Mom.  To know that they can keep in touch this way with each other, with Vickie, with me, with their grandchildren, etc. is all just so GREAT.  :)  It is truly never too late to learn.  As I pointed out to Mom while she was learning, I was still learning to drive in my late thirties, so I would never be the one to mock someone for trying to learn, let alone struggling to learn, something.  I love watching people learn something, I love the moment when it "clicks"--when Mom opened her phone to see that just-taken picture of her two youngest nieces and suddenly "got" it and wanted more, more, more--and I find it sweet and inspiring to know that the morning of October 30th, Mom had no interest in this or ability to do this, and a few days later, she was--in her own self-deprecating--words "a texting marvel."  :)  And with that, I will sign off and wait for Mom's next message.  ♥