A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Norma Andrew, resident of a memory care facility in Phoenix and mother of Pine Knot New freelance writer Timothy Soden-Groves, video chats with her son.
The Carlton County video was shared on the television in the facility's community room. "That's my son on TV," Norma Andrew told people.
Just minutes after I finished interviewing one of the two directors for the article that starts on the previous page, I got a call from Linda, an activities assistant at the residential memory care unit where my mother lives in Phoenix. Linda wanted to set up a Zoom video meeting with my mom, my wife and me.
This technology was new to the memory care facility, and Linda herself had never used Zoom before. We would be their test case for this new way of connecting residents with loved ones.
After some connection blips, Linda had us up and running in short order. We had a wonderful conversation with my mom. She was so happy and engaged, loving to see our faces.
We told mom and Linda about some folksy music videos we had made and posted to YouTube. We gave Linda a link to the videos so she might share them later with Mom.
Soon I got a text with photos from Linda, stating that our music videos were playing on the 60-inch screen in the community room. Linda wrote: "She is very proud. She keeps saying, 'That's my son on TV.'"
Maybe, through all of this, we can make the world a smaller, more close-knit place after all.
