What a tech-savvy senior

This reader describes her elderly mother as an eager and fast learner who is adept at using today’s modern gadgets.

MY MOTHER is an octogenarian. She turns 89 this Sept 5.

Although I have five siblings, I like to believe that she regards me as her favourite. Of course, I will never hear this admission from her as she always maintains that she loves all her children equally.

If I were to check the statistics, I would probably be right to say that Mother falls in the 0.01% of octogenarians who have the incredible ability to use the latest communication technology available.

On one of her birthdays years ago, we bought her a handphone so that she would be able to connect with all her children and relatives.

Not long after the launch of the first edition of the Apple iPad, we bought one for her as a birthday present. Again, she learnt to use it very quickly. On it, she enjoyed playing games and watching movies.

She loves to be connected and calls me constantly when she is staying with her sons. She gets agitated if I am not there to take her calls.

When she was in her 70s, she learnt to operate the desktop PC, which she used to play Solitaire almost every day. Friends and relatives who dropped by the house and saw her at the computer would be in awe.

It is a great pity that mother did not get a chance to go to school when she was young. In those days, education did not seem important for the girls in the family; instead, she had to help the family get some extra income, working at the factory.

We can see that mother is an eager and fast learner and highly intelligent. Had she been given an education, I am sure she would have become a successful and dynamic career woman.

As a homemaker, she is able to cook many wonderful and delicious dishes. She taught herself to sew clothes for the family, too. I never needed to buy any clothes until I left secondary school.

Being very creative, she learnt to crochet and knit. I have a huge collection of knitwear in my wardrobe – birthday presents that I received from her every other year. Unfortunately, with her failing eyesight, she stopped this hobby some years back.

As I see my mother ageing, and while she is still alert and in fairly good health, I remind myself to spend as much quality time as I can with her. I feel very happy each time I receive her Skype/phone call and to know that she is well. She has often reminded me to learn from her all her signature dishes so that I am able to cook them when she is no longer around.

The day that she has to leave us, I know I will have no regrets and I will forever be grateful to someone up there for giving me such a wonderful mother.

I love you so much, Mother.