By Nancy PatricK

I do not spend a lot of time on Facebook, but I sometimes pay attention to posts made by people I know and respect. One such post last week by Patty Hundley, wife of former AISD superintendent Charles Hundley, really spoke to me. Here it is:

“A society that forces a ninety-year-old to use a smartphone in order to access basic rights is not a modern society; it is a society that has decided to cast aside its own elders. By 2026, everything has become an app, a code, a portal. Yet the very people who built this country with their own hands now find themselves illiterate in their own homes. If booking a medical appointment  or paying a bill requires the help of a son or granddaughter—assuming there is one—then the system has failed. This is not innovation; it is exclusion. Technology should serve people, not decide who is still entitled to dignity. When we leave behind those who came before us, we are not evolving—we are merely becoming more comfortable and more selfish.” (Brenda Martinson)

I used to wonder if old people thought much about being old. Now I know with certainty that the topic and issues of senior living dominate the thoughts of the elderly daily. I realize that ordinary people cannot stop progress, but perhaps if service providers offered options for their clients who cannot navigate their technological processes, they could relieve much stress and fear among the elderly.

Mike Patrick visits with Norma Smith, Nancy’s mother during a holiday season.

I don’t remember at what point phone calls with businesses adopted the recorded system of responding to questions designed to direct the caller to the appropriate resource, but I know it was at least twenty-five years ago because I had to take care of all my parents’ phone calls for them. Not only was hearing a problem, but the automated voices do not have human inflections and cadences.

Medical appointments, insurance questions, changes of addresses, and end-of-life documentation have become extremely technical. I tried to avoid smart phone usage as long as possible but eventually succumbed to the pressure to own and use one in order to accomplish ordinary needs of everyday life.

Between us, my husband and I have three graduate degrees. I would have thought we were intelligent enough to complete some changes on our retirement documents recently. Unfortunately, I was wrong. The complexity and lengthiness of that company’s paperwork required four attempts to correctly complete it. We finally managed to find a live representative by following the labyrinthe phone prompts. My husband orally went through the documents, page by page, with the representative to make sure we had checked, signed, or initialed each box or line contained in the entire text.

I find some of the points the Facebook member made especially poignant—especially the references to dignity and exclusion. Although we often “joke” about asking our grandchildren to help us travel through the maze of technology that entangles our lives, we do not find it funny. Losing the ability to take care of our own business demeans us, and we fear consequences of making technical or legal errors.

American culture as well as some European cultures extol youth and beauty while others such as Japan and China revere the elderly in their societies. I do not naively think I can influence American society to love my gray hair, wrinkles, limited mobility, and occasional confusion, but I do know that the Bible exhorts young people to respect their elders. The following scriptures guide our behavior in dealing with senior citizens as they pass through a difficult stage of life:

1. “Stand up in the presence of the aged, and show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.” – Leviticus 19:32
2. “Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.” – 1 Timothy 5:1-2
3. “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” – Proverbs 16:31
4. “The glory of young men is their strength, gray hair the splendor of the old.” – Proverbs 20:29
5. “Is not wisdom found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” – Job 12:12

Nancy Patrick is a retired teacher who lives in Abilene and enjoys writing