Deletions and Changes

 

The last image she took on her cell phone

Among myriad things, I was in charge of my mother's technology.

That's not to say I was her only tech support. Oh, no. But I was generally her first line of questioning.

My phone would buzz: "I'm having an issue with my phone/iPad/iPod/TV/printer..." 

I was responsible for helping her buy her two iPhones, for instance, and then painstakingly dealing with setting them up, as well as answering the myriad questions.

When my patience ran out or the answer wasn't to her liking, that's when she'd normally go to my niece Stephanie.

Well, today, I had the task of shutting her account down. I had to do it because we shared an account.

There was something turning her phone off that stayed with me all day.

It's a finality.

I mean, it's like you've deleted someone.

Verizon was awesome in helping me. But, before the phone call was over, my mother's cell phone was gone.

I tried calling it -- nothing was there. It was just deleted.

Now I have to clean her phone out and prepare to send it to Verizon. We won't be responsible for the remaining payments on her iPhone XR.

She wanted a bigger phone last time out. I made the the mistake of setting her up with a small, reasonably priced iPhone in the summer of 2016, only to hear her complain about how small it was. So when we went back to upgrade in the summer of 2019, we both got the same model and she was much happier.

Her smaller phone will stay with me as an extra device and I'll put it to good use.

The iPhone XR will go in a shipping box back to Verizon within a week.

I've downloaded the pictures onto the same computer I'm writing this post on. I'm working on cleaning out the apps.

Her Facebook account -- her beloved Facebook account -- will stay active. I've joked about taking over her Twitter account but I imagine that someone would get offended with my twisted/ghoulish sense of humor. I did think it would be fun to tweet as her from the beyond. Hell, I think SHE would have found that funny.

It's all just stuff, isn't it? Like the Instagram account she barely used to go along with the myriad other things. The apps and open memberships that will just sit there, unused, until some computer comes along and purges it.

And then it's just gone.

Like her cell phone number.

I also changed the home TV plan but couldn't bring myself to completely shut it all down. Not yet, anyway.

We've had the house phone number for roughly 60 years. I know, I know. Don't get emotionally attached. How others can be so cold is beyond me.

I often say I got most of the emotion in the family. Damn near all of it.

But her cell phone number is turned off. The texting that drove me out of my skull is no more.

You truly don't know what you've got until it's gone.