When I hear ‘Digital Divide’, I typically think impoverished inner city youth. I think of impoverished single moms struggling to get by. I do not typically think about the elderly. Yet this is a thought that has been building in my mind.

In the spring, my daughters volunteered at a local nursing home. Mostly, they spoke with the residents, played trivia, played a little bit of piano for them, the things that volunteers have been doing for years at nursing homes, just as I did when I was their age.

However, my perspective on this has changed, in part because of the developments of this past week. You see, on Tuesday, my mother had knee surgery. She is still recovering in the hospital, but will go to a nursing home for the next phase of her recovery in a few days.

At the end of June, Mairead, Miranda and I went up to visit my mother.

Alice and Aldon, originally uploaded by Aldon.

We talked about her using a computer to see pictures and videos of the family that I put online. She had an old laptop around and I fixed it up a little bit. However, she has essential tremors and being able to type or move a mouse is very difficult for her. The tremors also cause her to stutter, so speech recognition wouldn’t work well either.

After our visit, I posted pictures on Flickr. Later, my brother visited and showed her the pictures online. She greatly enjoyed them and hopes to find ways of seeing other family pictures online.

When Kim’s grandfather was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s, they made a scrapbook of pictures from his life. As the disease wore on, he had more and more difficulties recognizing the pictures, but for a long time, they were a touchstone for him.

For a Wordless Wednesday recently, I scanned in a childhood photo which my mother and brother greatly appreciated.

Childhood in the Garden, originally uploaded by Aldon.

Yes, we could print out photos and mail them, but too often we don’t get to that. For that matter, too often many of us do not manage to make it to the nursing homes to visit our parents. In my case, it will be difficult. It is a several hours drive, and it is even longer for my sister.

But, I do write about my life here. I post pictures on Flickr. If someone can help my mother access them, it will bridge a different digital divide, it will bridge a generational divide, and it will bring great happiness to many people.

So, if you live in Williamstown, MA and are willing to stop by at Sweetbrook Nursing home over the next few weeks, find my mother and show her recent pictures and read her some recent blog posts. If you have elderly relatives in Stamford, CT, let me know. I will visit them and help them access your content online. Most importantly, let’s reach out to one another to help elderly people that have difficulty accessing the internet find content put up by their families and friends.

Oh, and if someone does help my mother, here’s a pictures of Reilly I think she would like

Reilly, the politicat, originally uploaded by Aldon.