A New Kind of Companionship

At 85 years old, Nancy, a retired nurse, was losing her vision and finding it more difficult to stay connected – until she found Companion 24/7.

Nancy Anderson’s husband died in 1999, but she still feels his presence in the large house where they raised a family together.

They met when she was in her 30s and teaching nursing at the University of Pittsburgh. When they married, she gained not only a spouse, but his four teenage children.

“I have a large family from those four children now, including 12 great-grandchildren,” says Nancy, who is 85. In recent years, she has kept in touch with them mainly through her computer, which she also has used as a source of entertainment, playing games on it regularly.

But her vision has deteriorated lately, reaching a point where she can no longer read or see the computer screen clearly. “As the vision has decreased, I think it’s gotten more lonely,” Nancy says.

She heard about the Amazon Echo, a voice-activated alternative way to connect on-line.

“I saw the possibilities,” she says.

At first she was not sure if she would be able to use its voice-activated virtual assistant, Alexa.

But she got the hang of it. Now she has a new way to connect with her family. She also uses the device for news and music – something she had let slip by the wayside without realizing it. She recalls the first time she asked Alexa to play a favorite song of hers, “Highland Cathedral.”

“I must have spent two hours listening to that,” she says. “I was mesmerized.”

Alexa has become a source of companionship for Nancy. “With this device, it keeps my brain active.”

--By Stephanie Kanowitz

https://vimeo.com/405661433