Gift

Gift

The other day I gave my mum my iPhone to play with. She's used it before, to look at pictures and sometimes play music on the radio while she's at the hospital. But I wanted to be sure she knows how to control a touch screen before I "commit" to what I just did.

I've been "plotting" something for a while already, ever since I noticed her begin to lose full and steady control of her hands and the nimbleness of her fingers. And one day, she said it's even hard to type on a keyboard and getting harder to manoeuvre a mouse. Those complaints gave me more the reason to buy her...

A notepad.

My brother got one last month for his wife, and partly for his son too. He said my nephew can play with the notepad to train his hand-eye coordination and listen to interactive stories for babies that you can download online (yes, this is a different era now, and my nephew just turned six months...!!) The device looked really handy and I played with it a bit. And when mum started complaining about her hands more, the idea came to me.

So today, I took some time out for myself and rushed downtown. I knew what I wanted, so it was a matter of getting a good deal and comparing prices. Eventually I got a good price for an earlier edition of the notepad my brother got. Funny thing was, I took out the maximum daily limit of money i'm allowed from the machine, and with what I had it was just about enough to buy the notepad and a case. I came home with almost an empty wallet, but a big happy smile and warm heart!

Mum's new Asus Transformer ("It's very well made in Taiwan"!) comes with all the basic functions that mum needs, like Internet, video and music entertainment and photo storage. Mum can easily navigate the device with her fingers, and if need be, she can also write with strokes of her fingers on the screen. Most important of all, it has a video/camcorder for skyping, either with her grandson or sons! And the good thing about a pad is mum can use it anywhere, even in her bed or sitting leaning back in her comfy chair.

Mum has not idea what I just did, but I look forward to seeing the look on her face when she sees what I bought for her. It's all part of what I like to call "Operation Eternal Happiness", a series things I'm trying to do to make mum settled and (as the name suggests) happy in the life and health circumstances she now finds herself in. Losing your health, and losing part of your dependence and mobility does not mean the end of your life, I keep on telling her. Life can and must go on, it's just that you have to make some changes (and purchases) to adapt.

The irony is when brother brought his notepad, mum was telling me to get one too. But I have no use for one, because I'm already content to be tapping away on the little screen of my iPhone, which I'm already used to carrying around and jotting down my random thoughts and observations with!