Turning a Letdown into Commitment

“Sue? It’s Josephine. I got an e-mail from you, but I can’t open the picture. But it’s OK. I’ll just wait until you visit next time and you can show me.”

That’s my 80-year-old mother-in-law. She’s the sweetest person in the world. Hates to bother people for help, but she’s quick to offer it to whoever wants it.

It kind of kills me that I can’t always be there to help her when she has problems with her computer. She lives hours away, and though we visit a few times a year, it’s not often enough.

Although my mother-in-law has lots of friends in her suburban Philadelphia, Pa., retirement community, we can tell she longs for family. I’m sure that if we could share photos and thoughts with her on the Internet she’d be a little less lonely.

But technology, which should be her friend, is often an obstacle. She’s a self-taught computer woman and when she hits a roadblock, it stops her cold. There’s nobody who offers computer help to the residents in her community. I mean, there’s an older gentleman who has helped her, but I’m not sure he knows what he’s doing either. Maybe he’s just flirting.

That’s why offering my computer knowledge to older adults appealed to me as a way to join the National Day of Service. A little hunting on President Obama’s volunteer website turned up a great opportunity at a retirement community here in northeast Ohio.

After a week of unreturned phone calls and an unsuccessful visit in person, I decided they didn’t really want any volunteers.

Undaunted, I decided to stop by another retirement community. Inside Breckenridge Village’s community center, I expressed my interest in volunteering at the computer center, if they had one. I also told them about being disappointed at the facility that didn’t want me.

“Well, that won’t happen here,” said the woman behind the counter. She looked like a resident who was volunteering at the welcome counter.

Breckenridge had just installed four computers in its center and was looking for someone to help the residents with computer literacy. Talk about great timing. They weren’t quite ready to go Friday, so once again my hopes of participating in the National Day of Service were dashed.

But the people at Breckenridge were so warm and welcoming, I decided to turn my one-day quest into a long-term commitment. I want to be there when they are ready.

I’m thinking of spending a few hours there every other week to start. Maybe they’d be open to the idea of offering mini-seminars on cool things you can do online—like how to shop online, how to use Facebook to stay in touch with their grandchildren or how to do Google searches on their neighbors.

In the meantime, I think I’ll call my mother-in-law and see how she’s doing.

Susan Ruiz Patton lives in Willowick, Ohio.