This past summer, one Morningside Village senior in his mid-eighties amazingly entered the age of technology. He has always been well-read, often spending an afternoon in the library. But, he had a hankering to join the computer age, even though he was without a computer and knew nothing about them or even about using a keyboard. He’d easily made it through his formative years, through his procreative years, through WW II, as a U.S. Marine in the Pacific, through a career in grounds management, yet he was feeling that he had an insurmountable hurtle, making it into the computer-centered culture.
Three volunteers changed all that. A high school grad, Tanzina N., interned for us this summer, and she was very keen on teaching the senior how to use a keyboard and how to get online. She visited him several times a week for an hour or two per session, using a computer at the library for starters. Then, by chance, Joe B., a friend of MV who lives in the community, wanted to donate his old laptop to the organization in case someone could use it. Another volunteer, John H., was able to bring the computer up to date. We then gift-wrapped it and presented it to the senior. You can imagine the look on his face. He is now a happy member of the computer age; and, he says, “aside from all the research I can do, without a telephone, I’m now connected!”
Irene Zola
