Long Distance Service

My mother was in her seventies, when she started thinking about joining the computer age. Both of her brothers owned computers and exchanged frequent emails. She didn’t want to be left out. My parents had planned a visit during the Christmas season, so I decided to buy her one. I opened an email account, arranged for an internet provider and installed Scrabble and Solitaire applications. Then I topped it with a big red bow and a Merry Christmas tag.

My mother was delighted and I used the visit to teach her how to send email and play games. It was more difficult than I had anticipated. It’s easy to forget all the skills involved in using a computer. Using the mouse, opening applications and even turning the computer on and off were new to her. She was eager to learn, however, and by the time she left, I thought she would do well.

She did do fairly well until something went wrong. Trying to coach her over the phone was difficult. She didn’t always understand my questions and I couldn’t see if she was following my instructions. A couple of her friends tried to help, but just made matters worse.   If she had lived in a city, IT Support would have been available and I’d have happily paid for one. It certainly would have been cheaper and faster than booking a weekend flight and renting a car to drive from the airport to her home. I did that on two occasions and fixed the problem in less than five minutes.

Nowadays, connecting with a remote computer is a lot simpler, but back then even my technically savvy workplace required a visit to a room filled with HP’s and multiple monitor mounts to make some simple tweaks that in later years would be done from my own PC. Despite the hassles of providing long distance support, I’m not complaining. Being able to connect with family and friends online gave her a lot of happiness. I wish I could still be providing her technical support.