My friend Carol's 95 year old mother died a couple of weeks ago. She was more than likely born in a home with no electricity, no phones, no television and certainly no internet machine. When someone born in that era dies, I always marvel at what they have seen and done in their lives. Undoubtedly, she lived in an era of the most prolific technological advancements in the history of the world.
Two years ago today Betty left us. She was 83. Calvin Coolidge was President of the United States when she was born and she, too, was born in a house with no electricity. When she was growing up there was one person in their small town that had a car. She didn't live in a house with electricity or running water until she moved to Dallas after high school. She learned to type on an old Remington. She learned to drive a car in the 1950's. She learned to sew on her grandmother's pedal Singer. She listened to President Roosevelt proclaiming war in 1941 on a radio at "the rich people's" house. She and Charles went on their honeymoon on a Greyhound Bus.
In her life she saw the inventions of so many things. She saw a man walk on the moon. She and Charles took vacations on Airplanes. She learned to use a computer (kind of) at work. She started taking pictures on a "Brownie" and took digital pictures at the end of her life. But there is no question that the greatest invention for Betty was the telephone!!! She went from talking on a "party line", to a pay phone, to a rotary phone, to a touchtone phone to finally a cordless phone. She couldn't quite get the cell phone. She talked on one, but she couldn't figure out how to dial it. The telephone was Betty's fourth child. She loved that child!! She could talk for hours and hours and hours and hours. Betty would not have had the life she had without a phone. If Alexander Graham Bell hadn't invented that "talk box", Betty's life would have been so different. And quieter.
In the two years since she's been gone, there has been so much that she has missed. In two short years so many things have happened in our world. Thankfully she missed the economy tanking. Thankfully she did not have to keep up with the Kardashians. And certainly she should be very happy that she has missed The Jersey Shore.
So, on this anniversary of her death, I would so love to call her and tell her how much I miss her and love her. And then, I would put the phone on speaker while she would go on and on and on about all the people she's seen since she's been gone. Which then would awkwardly segue into how messy I am keeping her house and how much work needs to be done in the yard.
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