That’s a bummer. Can you add a day to the beginning and not tell anyone then do something nice for yourselves, even for an evening?
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I am so sorry, and so in the same boat. This was supposed to be my last week of work – I retire Friday. My kids are flying/driving in for Easter next week, which is also my 60th birthday. DH was taking me somewhere (he wouldn’t tell me where)
Instead, I am handing out meds and water and translating doctors’ orders and all other manner of covid things. For two people who keep insisting they are perfectly capable of living alone and angry that I am here. Because siblings deserved a break and the cold turned out to be covid.
I raise my water glass to all who quietly are getting things done because that’s what it takes.
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Well, that stinks. Damn. I’m sorry.
You have a right to be disappointed and nobody can fault you for it at all. But a big gold star for holding it in and making life easier for your husband. It’s just a good excuse to make another celebration twice as good!
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Very frustrating call with mom today. I got her an iPhone because they are easy to operate and every other person has one. A friend came over last night and help mom with the phone. Today the phone is defective, she can’t use it. Definitely operator error. I told her to take the phone to dinner and ask anyone how to make a call on it!
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I feel for you. There isn’t a cellphone made that my MIL can operate. She is one of the smartest women I know, but she chose to ignore technology, and now she just can’t use any of it. It’s sad, because I think it would have helped her feel more connected as she began to slow down. As it is, she’s just decided that everything is too much for her to handle.
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So glad my parents never got cellphones or computers.
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I am sorry, you are in a difficult season of life.
There is a 99 year old guy who posts on the Bogleheads forum. If he’s got kids, I hope they know how lucky they are to have a dad who seems to have more of his faculties as he approaches 100 than I have in my 60’s. The rest of us at least have a place to commiserate and share ideas. This is a good thing.
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Is his name Charlie Munger, by any chance? 
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There must be something about being financially set for life that leads to living so long! I was thinking of Taylor Latimore.
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Taylor Larimore is incredible. I met him at a Bogleheads meeting several years ago in my hometown. He comes to all the meetings and he has a lady friend who comes with him. His son always shows up with sandwiches and drinks for everyone. I’m sure he knows how lucky he is 
.
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I tried to get my dad to use an IPad, but it didn’t work because his vision is poor and he has an essential tremor, so he couldn’t get the touchpad to work. I’m only 58 and don’t have these problems yet, but sometimes the touchscreen is fickle and annoying. I should have tried to get him to use Alexa, but now he just can’t adapt. I know that I should try to keep abreast of emerging technology so that I can alleviate fading functions, but it is hard to keep up.
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My mom is almost 90 and is pretty good with her iPad, less able with her iPhone (which we set up to be super simple). My father is completely hopeless with computers of any kind and has no interest in learning to use anything
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That is super common among the aged.
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Makes me feel better to hear of others struggling with technology.
The old phone is wearing out and out of storage. It had to be replaced. I thought an iPhone would be the easiest solution
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Someone, it may have been you, mentioned upthread that their father just refused to learn new technology. It is really a mindset. Both my in-laws are that way, my FIL especially (not that it matters now). My MIL’s daughters pushed her to try and adapt, and she’s better than he was. My father hasn’t been much better than my FIL. My mother, OTOH, eats it up and is a huge consumer of anything new. She can compete with my kids in terms of ease of assimilation, but she can certainly use her iPhone and a computer. I attribute some of that to the fact that she has been blessed with youthful looks and she is healthy and active (an avid hiker). She’s on a trip in Europe right now. So the world treats her as a younger person, and that may contribute to her outlook on life.
Something happens with many people as they get to a certain age where they feel the world has passed them by and they seem to resent anything associated with the changing world around them. Everything is bad and it used to be so much better. I think technology is a big symbolic representation of a changing world to a lot of old people.
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My mom could handle her flip phone for calls and that was it. No texts. No pics. We got her a Kindle fire to “trial” a tablet and she decided she didn’t want it because all she did was play solitaire and slots games on it and she had to keep plugging it in and use electricity. 
She often said she wished she knew how to use “computers” but she didn’t have the patience to tackle it. It was just too foreign (as was she! English wasn’t her first language and so learning was sometimes a roadblock).
Even navigating phone calls and the automated steps to ask a question about a bill or whatever would be so, so frustrating to her. I mean I hate it too! Not all technology beats the old way!
Who know what will be technology or new thing that we put our foot down on learning when we are in our 80’s? It’s easy to say “nothing” - until you are there.
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My sister is the one who I’m now dragging kicking and screaming into the 21st century. She doesn’t know how to do anything on computer (although she HAS to) and I’ve got to set her up with a decent phone.
In contrast my dad had a web site (literally one of the very first–now listed in the Library of Congress) before he even owned a computer to see it (he’d call me to look it up and tell him if it looked okay).
Just make sure you have ALL the passwords to EVERYTHING. Most everything is strictly through computer access these days from SS, Treasury, banking, etc. Including accounts you need closed. So much stuff out there for scammers.
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Gosh, I am going through this adapting to the 21st century between my mom and 67yo sister on one side and my SIL on the other. SIL is in charge of buying groceries for my mom most of the time. SIL used the Walmart app last week, which meant putting my mom’s credit card into the app. Well, my sister and mom freaked. My sister acted like my SIL was just crazy to do that and my mom got riled up and they called ME, who isn’t involved and three hours away. Neither side is “wrong,” just different comfort levels.
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