Way To Go, Mom!

We know that exercising the brain is said to be a good way to slow dementia and memory loss in general. It makes sense that reading and working puzzles and learning something new could be effective in keeping our brains in good working order.

I think I mentioned in the past that my mother has loved to play scrabble for years. And she was a whiz too! When she moved close to me, I located a scrabble group and she played with them for several months. She was age 83 then and the oldest of the players. But she kept up with the group and enjoyed playing until they started making some changes to the rules.

My sister had given her an older laptop computer and I put the scrabble game on it. She was learning to enjoy it, although it is definitely different playing a computer opponent than a human one! Then for various reasons, she stopped using it for a while.

Now, after a year or so, she is ready to play "Maven" (the computer) again. She is well aware that exercise of different kinds has been prescribed to help with her memory loss. And she is the one who asked me to help her with start up and how to play again. I've written out the instructions from start to shutdown and spent some time today explaining the ins and outs of the computer to her. I don't expect her to catch on immediately, but I must say, I'm awfully proud of her. Almost 85 and learning new skills to play a game that will help her in so many ways. Way to go, Mom!