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Family
A Phone For Americo
This will help all of us get through what could have been a very lonely winter for Rico
My wife’s uncle suffered a stroke a year ago that left him unable to walk and with a mostly paralyzed right arm. He ended up in a nursing home, a not very nice place at first, but the family soon relocated him to a very well run home with helpful and caring staff. A bonus for us was that the home was only a twenty minute drive from our house, which made visiting much easier.
Americo is the last survivor of his siblings. My wife spent the first few years of her life living in her grandparents’ house with Americo and the rest of his family while her father, Americo’s oldest brother, served in the Navy during World War II. Of course that makes Rico (as they call him) very special to her. We visited every week and she calls him regularly.
But when Rico first went to the home, he did not have a cell phone. He is in his 80’s, and had a land line phone prior to his stroke; he had never used a cell phone. I happened to have an iPhone SE that I had not yet traded in, so I gave him that with a prepaid cell plan that I paid for. I added his contacts, taught him how to use it, and set it up so that he could use “Hey, Siri” for his regular calls.
