Picture of the Week

Hi all ... a non-quilting post here.

I lost my dad to Alzheimer's in September of 2016.  My parents lived near my sister in an Assisted Living facility which is nearly 2,000 miles away from where we live.  I would visit when I could and I would call weekly.  As my father deteriorated, he moved into the memory care unit and I began to lose touch with him outside of my visits.

About 2 years before we lost dad, I called my mom on a day that was particularly hard for her as she was still coming to grips with what it meant for my dad to continue to deteriorate.  I asked her what I could do to help her from a distance.  She thought about it for a few minutes and asked me to write my dad a letter every week that would tell him what was going on in our lives and it would be something for him to look forward to.

I committed.

But I also realized after about 2 weeks that it wasn't sustainable.  While we were busy with jobs, life, etc, there also wasn't that much exciting going on in our lives to fill a weekly letter and I worried about my ability to pull it off over the long haul.

But I came up with an alternative.  The previous Christmas, as a present for my dad, I had my siblings and their kids send me candid pictures from their phones.  I printed everyone's names on the photos and made them into a digital collage that I was able to print at the local drug store and put into a frame so that my mom could hang it on his wall—hopefully extending his knowledge of who we were for just a little bit longer.

With the knowledge that I could load pictures directly from my iPhone to the Kodak kiosk in the drug store, I came up with an alternate plan. 

Every Wednesday, I would stop by our local drug store on my way home from work and print out pictures that I had taken with my phone for the week—us, the dogs, the view, the garden, kayaking, hiking, running, etc.  On the back, I would write "Picture of the week" and then tell him what the picture was of and that I loved him.  Since my dad was in memory care, my parents were no longer living in the same apartment, so I printed out 2 pictures each week—one for dad and one for mom, which I mailed separately to their respective apartments so that they would both have something to look forward to.

While we eventually lost dad, I continued the practice with mom as a way to stay in touch with her, let her know I love her and give her something to look forward to.

About 2 years ago, my husband saw an add on TV for an App called TouchNote.  It is an app that allows you to create a post card on your phone—picture on the front, note and address on the back.  I sent one to myself to make sure I was happy with the quality and it was perfect.

Here's how it works.  You open the app and click on "postcard".  It opens your photo library and you choose the photo you want to use.  You can made it bigger or smaller, or even create a collage from your photos if you want.  You can also add an optional caption. 

Once you're happy with the image and your caption.  You click "next" and it takes you to the writing portion.  Just like a real post card, there is a limit to how much you can write/type.  You can use emoticons in your message.

Then you add an address (which it stores for future use).  And that's it!

 

You can pay per card or buy a credit pack.  I buy the 20 credit pack which equates to $1.75 per sent.  

The cool thing is you can use it from ANYWHERE.  We were in Scotland last May, mom got pics from Scotland.  France in October ... mom got pics from France.  Yellowstone in June ... mom got pics from Yellowstone.  We have also expanded it to send postcards when we travel to John's grandkids who all live in Canada.  Because the app was founded in the UK, they have made it super easy to use and send internationally as well.

I have a reminder on my phone calendar that reminds me every Wednesday that it is time for Picture of the Week.  Some pics are definitely better than others ... but mom always get sent a picture every Wednesday.

Over the past year, I have mentioned to a few friends who have elderly parents that live a distance how I use TouchNote and, without exception, I am now aware they use it with their parents in a similar capacity.  

I have absolutely no interest in or financial relationship with TouchNote.  I just have found it a great way to stay in touch with family, bring a smile to my mom once a week with a card (she saves everyone of them and they sit on the credenza with her TV, when I visit, she tells me that she looks through them often).  

I also find it a GREAT way to use some of the pictures that we capture daily on our phones and share them with others.  A few examples:

I know ... it's not a quilting post ... but I do love the idea of being able to share something that helps bring me and my family closer and may be a tool for those of you who want to stay in touch with parents, kids, grand kids, former neighbors ... a bit of bringing the community back together.  

All the best,

Lisa