Seattle, Washington

The CEIVA® family for us is our Mom and her children, me as oldest, my sister and brother. For years, we gave Mom doubles of family pictures. When she started giving them back, we moved to modern technologies.

We would send Mom pictures by email, but she was often frustrated and confused by the community computer at her retirement residence. Computing for her is "pull" technology — she had to initiate activity.

When I saw the CEIVA, it was perfect, so we gave it to her for her 85th birthday. First I chose to include the weather and date. For an aging person, this is a great function. They can easily see the day and time and what is happening, which is important to grounding them.

Second, she loves to find the light on. It means new pictures are there and it is a great way to liven her day. For me, particularly living several thousand miles away, it is my way of keeping her engaged with our day to day lives.

I have sent her pictures of old photos of herself as a young woman that I scanned. I have sent her pictures of herself on her visits to us in Seattle. Obviously, we put up pictures of vacations and events — a wedding, new baby — even when she has been a part of that. Recently, I sent her a picture of the season's first crocus since we are ahead of her seasonally. I send pictures of great sunrises on the lake, the dog's haircut, gourmet plates we turned out, a flower arrangement and more.