Back in the 80's my parents bought a Commodore 64 home computer, followed by an early IBM Windows machine, then more modern computers. They mostly played solitaire, but they did do some things online. Eventually my father checked his accounts and traded stocks online. My mother was the one that did email. I remember my last email from her 5 or 6 years ago, it read, "Your father said I should send you an email. Love Mom."
As her dementia progressed, mom would sit for hours tearing paper into tiny pieces. It kept her hands busy and made her happy. She tore up mail, books, her bible, and her address book. Not having her address book caused a bit of a panic when we were trying to reach out to family members. Eventually we found a couple of address books, she kept a second one in the car for when they traveled - it was a treasure trove of contact information.
Recently I was sorting through a box of paperwork that I shipped to my home when I was cleaning out my parents home. In it were the three address books we found. One was mom's email address book. A physical book, she would print emails out, cut off the address header and tape them in the book. Apparently the concept of an online email address book didn't quite make her comfortable.
Near the bottom of one page was a small clipping from a newspaper, it reads:
"God grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked,
The good fortune to run into the ones I do,
And the eyesight to tell the difference."
Oh how I love those words of wisdom. Thanks to your mother and thanks to you for sharing!
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