Text Me When You’re Ready to Skype Son
By Bill no responsesAs close as Michael Hamby is to his grandmother, my mom, there still remains the geographic reality that she lives in Greenville, South Carolina and he doesn’t. Fortunately, over the years, both he and his brother, Peter, have spent lots more time with her as adults than I ever did with either of my grandmothers. I’m very happy for them and wish I had had the opportunity (Perhaps I didn’t make the opportunities) or had made the time to travel to Iuka, Mississippi or the mountains of North Carolina when I was in my early to mid-twenties and getting on with a career and having adventures. But that was then and this is now and, in the very recent wake of Peter and Michael losing their Washington, D.C. grandmother, the beautiful and loving, Mary Connolly, it has become even more important to Tressa and myself that GeeGee remain an active and integral part of their lives. So, in the run up to Himself leaving town for two years, when it became clear that there was no way that we could get her to Richmond or him to Greenville, the anxiety level (mine) and the hand wringing (mine) crept higher and tighter. They had to see one another and a phone call seemed a tepid solution. Then, I remembered that Geraldine Hamby has not let any grass grow when it comes to technology. At 86, e-mail is old hat. She’s a texter and an I-Padder and now was the time to step it up and put it all into play if there ever was one.
Earlier last year, Larry, my brother, set GeeGee up with an I-Pad as a diversion while she was in rehab test driving a new knee. At the time Lar said the learning curve was a bit steep attempting to guide a willing, bright but somewhat medicated student/patient through the necessary steps of mastering the fundamentals of I-Pad wisdom and technique. However, over time she picked it up, and now, when she is in her chair watching the news, golf or whatever else streams into her house in the “Up State” of South Carolina over her local cable system, she does what we all do these days: she fiddles with her portable electronic device. She didn’t realize that said device could be used to Skype, but she was about to learn how to put it into play to do a video call with Michael; about to step up in her electronic game. That’s where Peter comes in.
Peter has invested quite a bit of time and CNN’s treasure in becoming very familiar with the South Carolina political landscape over the last several years. His best Up State source also does his laundry, cooks for him and guards his door as he catches up on sleep after long days following the Republican Primary shenanigans from Spartanburg to Columbia to Charleston and points in between. Arriving for a weekend of R&R at GeeGee’s house that also coincided with Michael’s last night at home provided the on-site tech support that was called for to make this Skype thing work. Peter showed her how to download the program and how to position the device for opportune usage. I did a practice run through, and as a rookie Skyper myself, found it pretty cool and realized how important it will be over the next couple of years connecting with Himself from wherever he finally finds himself in Thailand.
Mom did an impromptu tour of her house describing important scenes such a two-week’s worth of Peter’s clean laundry folded on a bed. “Just like when you and your brother would come home with dirty clothes and eat and sleep all the time!” Yes Mom.
So, as the beautiful and talented, Anna Starnes, peer/confidant of Michael, and oldest of the Starnes clan and I were yakking by the fire awaiting the rest of her family, the people he most wanted to spend his last night and meal with, I could hear he and my mom laughing and talking. They weren’t together but they were.
And they told each other they both looked great.
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