Mountain Views News, Combined Edition Saturday, July 18, 2020

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Mountain View News Saturday, July 18, 2020 

VIDEO CALLING SOLUTIONS 
FOR TECH-CHALLENGED 
SENIORS 

Dear Savvy Senior: 

Can you recommend some simple devices that can help 
tech-challenged seniors with video calls? My 80-yearold 
mother has been isolating herself for months now in fear of the coronavirus and I haven’t been able 
to see her face-to-face in quite a while. Concerned Daughter 

Dear Concerned: 

Video chatting is a great way to stay connected and keep tabs on an elder parent when you can’t 
be there, but it’s even more important now during this pandemic as many isolated seniors are also 
suffering from chronic loneliness. 

To help connect you and your mom virtually, there are various products on the market that offer 
simple video calling for seniors who have limited ability or experience with technology. Here are 
four devices to consider. 

GrandPad: This is a top option for simple video calling, and much more. The GrandPad is an 
8-inch tablet specifically designed for seniors, ages 75 and older. It comes with a stylus, a charging 
cradle and 4G LTE built-in so it works anywhere within the Consumer Cellular network – home 
Wi-Fi is not required. 

Ready to go right out of the box, GrandPad provides a simplified menu of big icons and large text 
for only essential features, providing clutter-free, one-touch access to make and receive video calls, 
send voice emails, view photos and videos, listen to personalized music, check the weather, play 
games, browse the Internet and more. 

A GrandPad tablet costs $250 plus $40 monthly service fee and is sold through Consumer Cellular 
at GrandPad.net or call 888-545-1425. 

Amazon’s Echo Show: With its built-in camera and screen, the voice-command Echo Show also 
provides a simple way to have face-to-face chats with your mom, but she’ll need home Wi-Fi 
installed. 

Echo Shows, which come in three screen sizes – 5-inch ($90), 8-inch ($130) and 10-inch ($230) – 
will let your mom make and receive video calls to those who have their own device, or who have 
the Alexa app installed on their smartphone or tablet. 

Once you set up her contacts, to make a call your mom could simply say, “Alexa, call my daughter” 
And when you call her, she would ask Alexa to answer the call (or ignore it). There’s also a feature 
called “drop-in” that would let you video call your mom’s device anytime without her having to 
answer it. 

Available at Amazon.com, the Echo Show also offers thousands of other features your mom would 
enjoy like voice-activated access to news, weather, her favorite music and much more. 

If you decide to order an Echo Show device for mom, be sure your ask Amazon to mark it as a gift 
so it doesn’t get tied to your Amazon account. For instructions to help your mom set it up, or if she 
doesn’t have a smartphone, go to Amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html, and type in “Help 
Loved Ones Set Up Their Echo Show Remotely” in the “find more solutions” bar. 

ViewClix: This is a smart picture frame specifically designed for elderly seniors that lets family 
members make video calls, send photos and post virtual sticky notes with messages to their loved 
ones ViewClix from their smartphone, tablet or computer. Seniors, however, cannot initiate video 
calls from their ViewClix. Home Wi-Fi is also required. 

Available in two sizes – 10-inch for $199, and 15-inch for $299 – you can learn more about this 
product at ViewClix.com. 

Facebook Portal: If your mom is a Facebook user, a voice-command Facebook portal (see portal. 
facebook.com) is another simple way to stay connected – home Wi-Fi is needed. 

Portals, which come in three sizes – the original 10-inch Portal ($179), the 8-inch Mini ($129) 
and the massive 15-and-a-half-inch Portal Plus ($279) – are like Echo Shows, except they connect 
through Facebook. With a Portal, your mom can video call your smartphone or tablet (and vice 
versa) using Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. 

Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior. 
org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book. 


SENIOR HAPPENINGS 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! …July Birthdays* 

Nina Bartolai, Mary Lou Caldwell, Louise Neiby, Betty Hansen, Christine 
Durfort, Shahrzad Azrani, Jeanne Borgedahl, Janet Cox, Dorothy Montgomery, 
Bess Pancoska, Janet Swanson, Linda Thunes, Barbara Watson, Pat Alcorn, 
Karma Bell, Alice Clark, Dorothy Jerneycic, and Betty Dos Remedios 

 * To add your name to this distinguished list, please call the paper at 
626.355.2737. YEAR of birth not required 


SIERRA MADRE SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS PLAN 

The City of Sierra Madre is following these procedures to provide current communication in light of 
COVID-19 and keep the Senior Community and families informed of essential information and resources. 
City staff are monitoring email communication daily, and although employees are minimizing 
direct engagement and practicing social distancing in the community, please note that voice messages, 
emails, and social media responses are being addressed in the most efficient and timely manner. 

If at any moment additional information is needed, please contact City Hall Administrative Services at 
(626) 355-7135, Monday-Thursday from 7:30a – 5:30p, as they are taking messages and e-mailing the 
appropriate person. 

For messages that may trickle in otherwise, please note our team is remotely checking voicemail daily at 
the Community Services Department, (626) 355-5278 x702. 

Community Services Department will continue email communication with Senior residents and aging 
community members. 

If you know of family members or neighbors who may benefit from accessing information electronically, 
and to receive the department’s Seniors Newsletter via email but may not otherwise have been included 
on an email group list, please send your request with email address to the following team members: 

Lawren Heinz Lheinz@cityofsierramadre.com and Clarissa Lowe Clowe@cityofsierramadre.com. 

Community Services Department will continue Electronic Seniors Newsletter on a weekly-basis 
distribution. 

Community Services Department will continue with mail drop-off of newsletters at the Sierra Madre 
U.S. Post Office Box (unless otherwise advised). 

City Social Media will continue via Facebook as well as Instagram, and information sharing will include 
updates as details becomes available. 

Mater Dolorosa - Sierra Madre Meal Pick-Up Program provides seal-packaged frozen meals, 5-per 
person every Thursday, 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. at Hart Park House Senior Center 222 W. Sierra Madre Blvd. 
Donations are accepted. Call (626) 355-5278; x702 or 704. 

YWCA Intervale Meal Program - Effective Wednesday, April 1, 2020 

YWCA has transitioned their distribution of take home meals at the Sierra Madre Hart Park House Senior 
Center to a home-delivery meal program. Participants previously reserved for meal pick-up as of 
Wednesday, 3/25/20 were informed that they would begin to have their meals delivered to their homes, 
beginning Wednesday, April 1, 2020 until further notice. 

For any additional participants calling in that are at a high risk and need meals delivered to, please 
provide us their name, date of birth (they must be 60+), address and phone number and Community 
Services Department will for-ward this information to our County Contact. 

Food Banks Support: Seniors & Families: 

If someone is outside of our local area and in need of a food bank, they can find one nearest them by 
going to www.lafoodbank.org and typing in their zip code; or call from the list here: 

First Church of the Nazarene-Pasadena 3700 E. Sierra Madre Blvd. 626-351-9631 

Wednesday 10:30 am-12 pm 

Pasadena Senior Center 85 E. Holly St. Pasadena 626-685-6732 

Foothill Unity Center 415 W. Chestnut Ave. Monrovia 626-358-3486 Monday 1 pm-3:30 pm, 
Wednesday & Friday 9 am-11:30 am 

Lifeline Community Services & Economic Development 2556 N. Lake Ave Altadena 

626-797-3585 2nd and 4th Wednesday 12 pm-2 pm & 8:15 pm-9 pm 

Morning Star Outreach Ministry 1416 N. Mentor Ave Pasadena 626-794-4875 

2nd & 4th Saturday 11 am-1 

FAMILY MATTERS By Marc Garlett 

OUT TO PASTOR 

A Weekly Religion Column by Rev. James Snyder 


COVID-19 HIGHLIGHTS CRITICAL 
NEED FOR ADVANCE HEALTHCARE 
DIRECTIVES 


IF I HAD A NICKEL FOR EVERY BLUNDER I MADE 

As the 
C O V I D - 1 9 
p a n d e m i c 
c o n t i n u e s 
to ravage 
the country, 
doctors across 
the nation are 
joining lawyers 
in urging 
Americans to create the proper estate planning 
documents, so medical providers can better coordinate 
their care should they become hospitalized with the virus. 
The most critical planning tools for this purpose are 
medical power of attorney and a living will, advance 
healthcare directives that work together to help 
describe your wishes for medical treatment and endof-
life care in the event you’re unable to express your 
desires. In light of COVID-19, even those who have 
already created these documents should revisit them 
to ensure they are up-to-date. 

While all adults over age 18 should put these 
documents in place as soon as possible, if you are over 
age 60 or have a chronic underlying health condition, 
the need is particularly urgent. 

Advance directives
Medical power of attorney is an advance directive 
that allows you to name a person, known as your 
“agent,” to make healthcare decisions for you if you’re 
incapacitated and unable to make those decisions 
yourself. For example, if you are hospitalized with 
COVID-19 and need to be placed in a medically 
induced coma, this person would have the legal 
authority to advise doctors about your subsequent 
medical care. 

If you become incapacitated without medical power 
of attorney, physicians may be forced to ask the court 
to appoint a legal guardian to be your decision maker. 
The person given this responsibility could be someone 
you’d never want having power over such life or death 
decisions—and that’s why having medical powers of 
attorney is so important. 

While medical powers of attorney names who can make 
health-care decisions in the event of your incapacity, a 
living will explains how your care should be handled, 
particularly at the end of life. For example, if you 
should become seriously ill and unable to manage 
your own treatment, a living will can guide your 
agent to make these medical decisions on your behalf. 
These decisions could include if and when you want life 
support removed, whether you would want hydration 
and nutrition, and even what kind of food you want 
and who can visit you. To ensure your medical 
treatment is handled in exactly the way you want and 
prevent your family from undergoing needless stress 
and conflict during an already trying time, it’s vital 
that you document such wishes in a living will. 

Keep your directives updated
Even if you’ve already created advanced directives, 
now is the perfect time to review the documents to 
ensure they still match your wishes and circumstances. 
For instance, is the agent named in your medical 
power of attorney still the individual you’d want 
making these decisions? Do you have alternate 
agents named in case your primary choice is unable 
to serve? Has your health changed in ways that might 
affect your living will’s instructions? Are your values 
and wishes regarding end-of-life still the same?


Coronavirus considerations
What’s more, whether you are creating new documents 
or updating your old ones, you should keep COVID-19 
in mind. The highly contagious and life-threatening 
nature of the coronavirus is something medical 
providers have never dealt with before, and it has strained 
our nation’s healthcare system to the breaking point. 
You don’t want anything slowing down your 
treatment options if you contract COVID-19. Because 
COVID-19 is so contagious, family members of those 
who’ve contracted the virus are often not allowed to 
accompany them to the hospital. This means your 
agent likely won’t be there in person to make your 
treatment decisions. Ensure your agent has access to 
a copy of your directives and be sure to take a copy 
with you, along with contact info for your agent, if you 
must go to the hospital for treatment. 

Don’t do it yourself 

While you’ll find a wide selection of generic, advancedirective 
documents online, you shouldn’t trust these 
do-it-yourself forms to adequately address such critical 
decisions. This is especially true during the ongoing 
pandemic, when doctors are constantly tasked with 
making highly difficult and uncertain decisions for 
patients suffering from this deadly new virus. 

When it comes to your medical treatment and end-oflife 
care, you have unique needs and wishes that just 
can’t be anticipated by fill-in-the-blank documents. 
To ensure your directives are specifically tailored 
to suit your unique situation, you must work with 
experienced planning professionals to create—or at 
the very least, review—your medical power of attorney 
and living will. 

Dedicated to empowering your family, building your 
wealth and defining your 
legacy, 

A local attorney and 
father, Marc Garlett is on 
a mission to help parents 
protect what they love most. His office is located at 55 
Auburn Avenue, Sierra Madre, CA 91024. Schedule 
an appointment to sit down and talk about ensuring 
a legacy of love and financial security for your family 
by calling 626.355.4000 or visit www.CaliLaw.com for 
more information. 

I am not very agile when it 
comes to finances. Do not get 
me wrong, I know how to spend 
money; it is just that I do not know how to save 
money. Somewhere I lost my little piggy bank. 

One of my father's favorite quotes was, "A penny 
saved is a penny earned." It never made sense to 
me, but my father knew how to save money. On 
the other side, he was not very agile when it came 
to spending money especially on me. 

My whole life has never been focused on making 
money. For me, the outdoor was busier than the 
indoor with money. I must confess my wife and I 
have struggled throughout our life on the financial 
side. On the relational side, we have done 
wonderfully; at least that is my impression. 

I know some marriages seem to be based upon finances, 
even though they will not admit it. Their 
finances determine how successful they really are 
in their mind. 

That has not been the case with us. When the 
Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I married 
almost half a century ago, it had nothing to 
do with how much money we had. We both were 
working at the time, and together we could go 
out for dinner once a month. That seemed to be a 
very important time even though expensive. 

The focus of our life together was not on how 
much money we can make and save. Our life's focus 
had to do with our relationship, one with another, 
and with God. We were a spiritual couple 
and tried to serve God as faithfully as we could. 

The other night the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage 
and I enjoyed a quiet evening together 
drinking coffee and talking about this and that, 
more about that than this. 

Then we started to play her favorite game: Do 
You Remember? 

If statistics are correct, she remembers more than 
I do. 

When she poses a Do You Remember question, 
I can never remember. Several times, I had some 
remembrance but never enough to qualify as an 
answer. 

When I pose a Do You Remember question, she 
remembers it to the very last detail. Details that I 
do not remember. 

I have concluded and do not let this get around, 
but I think her remembering things is a complete 
hoax. I think she is making up things that she 
says she remembers just to trick me. My problem 
is, I cannot prove it. 

Her one trick question is, “Do you remember 
when we first met?” 

I have yet to get this question right. Every time 
she asked, it is always a different answer. If I challenge 
the answer, I look bad. Of course, I look 
bad as it is with questions like this. 

When we ran out of energy for this game, we just 
sat there and watched a little TV. 

When the next segment of commercials came, 
she said something rather curious. 

"If we had a nickel," she said, looking at me, 
"for every mistake you made, we would be 
millionaires." 

Then she continued, “Do you remember the first 
mistake you ever made?” 

Of course, I could think of several mistakes I 
made, one being getting involved with this kind 
of a game. However, for the life of me, I could 
never think of the first mistake I have ever made. 

For example, did I make that first mistake before 
I met her or after I met her? 

I was tempted to say that my first mistake was 
getting involved in silly games like this, but I value 
my life too much. 

This could be a trick. If I mentioned my first mistake, 
maybe it would be something she did not 
know before and now she does. How would that 
work out? 

We both laughed and went back to watching TV. 

I just could not get away from that question. If 
I really had a nickel for every mistake I made I 
am sure I would be a wealthy man. I just wonder 
how in the world I could collect on something 
like that. 

Then there is the question as to your definition of 
a mistake. I am sure my definition would be quite 
different from my wife’s. Everybody has their 
own definition of these things. 

Even thinking about that a little bit, I began remembering 
some mistakes that cost me money. 
Things I thought would turn out great only 
turned out dead in the water. 

Perhaps the biggest mistake anybody could make 
is believing that they do not make mistakes. 
Sometimes it takes a married person to realize 
what mistakes really are. And if you think you 
do not make a mistake, then that is a big mistake, 
and you will pay dearly for that. 

If she had asked me what my first good choice 
was, I would have told her it was her. My first 
mistake would have been, not meeting her at all. 

I remembered a very important verse of Scripture. 
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive 
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess 
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our 
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 
(1 John 1:8-9). 

It is not my mistakes but how I deal with them 
that makes all the difference in the world. 


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com