Finally someone has noticed that today’s cellphones are not geared for older consumers and they have designed a cellphone specifically for older adults. As cellular technology went digital, cellphones themselves got smaller and smaller. The tiny displays and buttons are difficult to read and manipulate.

Great Call In has introduced the new Jitterbug phone. The phone comes in two styles and different plans are available to meet your individual needs.

The Jitterbug phones have big buttons and easy to read screens and text with loud, clear sound. If you prefer, calls can be placed for you by a Jitterbug operator. One phone is an “emergency only” phone with only three buttons that can be programmed for 911, the operator and one for reaching a family member.

If you have wanted the convenience and security of a cellphone but felt they were too complicated to use, then check out
the Jitterbug Phone.

How often do you have contact with your children? According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, seniors and their children are communicating more than ever. In 1989 A gallup Poll found that 32% of seniors had daily contact with a family member; the Pew survey put this figure at 42%.

Part of this increase in contact stems from technological advances over the intervening period. While the telephone remains an important method of connecting between families and their parents, email has become an important additional method. Thirty percent of senior citizens reported that they have at least occasional email contact with their children. It is rare for there to be daily email contact, however.

Interestingly, those families that have daily email contact also tend to talk to each other in other ways every day. It seems that new means of communication are added to traditional methods, rather than substituting for them.

The Pew survey is very extensive, covering much more than electronic forms of communication. To read the full results, go to this article in Senior Journal.

Pat Gudinas and Shirley McGuire have each spent their lives wondering about the other. They were both born on June 1, 1935 to a young woman who gave them up for adoption when the birth father was unwilling to help her raise them. Her womb was the last space they would share together for the next 71 years.

Initially placed in separate foster homes, both girls eventually ended up at the same orphanage, St. Joseph’s in Milwaukee, WI. But they were never in the same room and didn’t meet. Pat was adopted at 4, Shirley lingered in the orphanage a few more years before being adopted. Each girl had been told while growing up that she was adopted, and that she had a twin sister, but no one knew anything more.

Until last week, when Pat, who had tried when she was 21 to get information from the orphanage and was turned away, finally got the answers she was looking for and after a lifelong search, met her sister Shirley for the first time in 71 years. She also discovered a half-sister and four half-brothers, children of her birth father. The two girls, who had been only children in their adoptive families, suddenly had many siblings.

“I’ve never had anybody in my family. Now I’ve got so many,” Pat said.

Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel

Today, September 10th, is Grandparents’ Day. Created by an act of Congress in 1978 and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, Grandparents’ Day always falls on the first Sunday following Labor Day.

Grandparents’ Day was created to honor the contribution that grandparents make to the lives of their grandchildren, sharing love and wisdom, enriching our relationships and bridging the gap between the generations.

There are about 56 million grandparents in the US today. About 5.7 million grandparents have grandchildren under 18 living with them.