Father’s Day is right around the corner, marking another opportunity to celebrate the unbreakable bonds we’ve forged with our one-of-a-kind Dads. The GrandPad team knows how important it is to stay connected with your parents as you age and possibly move away, which is why we spend every day providing seniors the tools they need to stay in touch with the kids and grandkids they love so dearly.
Last year we asked some of our loyal users how they stay connected with their fathers throughout the year, and what lasting memories they’ve made. If you missed it last year, keep reading to find out how much Dolores’ father Vernon has shaped her life, and how much he means to her.
Vernon has lived a long life. At 91 years old he’s still as thoughtful and full of life as we has in his youth. Vernon was raised on an expanse of farmland in Southern Indiana, learning the value of a hard day’s work alongside his seven siblings. As an adult, Vernon worked as a lumberjack and as a farmer to provide for Dolores and her three brothers and sisters.
As he began to age Vernon shifted focus to oversee several housing projects for the elderly and the disabled, putting his skillset to excellent use. He enjoyed a fun-filled retirement in Florida for almost 25 years before being pulled back to Indiana, yearning for more time with his family.
There’s one important detail we left out of the story – Vernon was born completely deaf, but successfully married, raised a family, and thrived in multiple careers without his condition slowing him down. Dolores recollects with admiration that her father never allowed himself to be defined by his deafness. Remembering this fondly, Dolores asserts, “when I was growing up, I never thought of him as disabled.”
Dolores and her siblings communicated with Vernon with their own system, and they formed their daily routines around him with ease. Dolores says, “it was so natural for us that I have only recently started remembering some of the unique ways we had communicating.”
Dolores lists some of these methods: “for example, when he was on the tractor on the farm and we wanted his attention, we would wave a white sheet.” Laughing, Dolores relays her distinct ritual of waking up. Her father would rapidly flip the upstairs hallway light on and off from the bottom of the stairs, and he wouldn’t stop until all of his kids had emerged from their rooms and waved down at him.
Vernon’s large family is now living all over the country – Dolores resides in Florida, two of her siblings live in Indiana, and one of her sisters has relocated to Georgia. In order to stay in touch with his loved ones Vernon required a dependable and intuitive communication tool that would accommodate his condition.
Luckily, with a GrandPad Vernon can contact his children with just a few clicks of a button, no matter where they are. The tablet strips away the confusion of modern technology so that computer-wary people like Vernon are comfortable and confident using it. Dolores notes that it’s become a prized possession of Vernon’s, saying his favorite activities are “following the Atlanta Braves games, attending church, putting together jigsaw puzzles, and playing games on his GrandPad.”
The lessons we learn from our fathers stick with us for a lifetime, shaping who we become. Let your father know how important each moment was by giving him a gift that will help you both create new memories every day. Happy Father’s Day from the GrandPad team.