Owen's X10 Blog

I had a rather disturbing conversation with my mother the other day. She is getting ready to take a trip with my grandmother, to South Dakota. They will be visiting relatives that my mom hasn’t seen since she was a little girl. This of course isn’t what bothered me. We got to talking about my grandmother. She’s a great woman. I spent last year living next door to her at my uncle’s house. I’d stop by between classes, usually about twice a day. I was her go- to- guy when it came to making sure her computer was up and running so she could email all of her friends across the world. I was also very valuable in resetting alarm clocks and changing light bulbs.

So…my mom tells me that my grandmother has been keeping one of her portable phones on the kitchen floor. This is her safety measure so she can get a hold of someone if she falls. It made my heart sink quite a bit to think of such an occurrence and the solution she has in place. Almost as soon as my mom told me of this, I recalled the Personal Assistance Voice Dialer that we carry at work. It is very much like that “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” system that most people are familiar with. This one is nice though; there are no monthly fees that my grandma would have to pay. In an emergency she would press her call button on the heart pendant she’d have around her neck. The system would then dial 4 emergency contacts – Julie, Dave, Beth and Becky I’d imagine. Instead of calling a call center it dials your loved ones directly. So I’m buying one for my Grandma ASAP. I’ll get it setup for her so that when she gets back from her trip her old solution can be scrapped for something that really works.