by NJJN Staff

March 19, 2009

Last Saturday, Bernice Gilenson, a resident of Daughters of Israel senior residence in West Orange, got to see the street outside her grandson’s home in California. As soon as he pulled the blinds up, she got a sweeping view of the neighborhood.

Gilenson, 76, hadn’t even left her building. She did it through the computer technology known as Skype, software that allows users to make telephone calls and transmit video images over the Internet.

“It’s so easy,” she said. And it has changed her husband’s life. Oscar has had a couple of strokes, and “his mind is not the best,” she said. He has never been interested in computers, according to his wife, but she put him on Skype anyway.

“He was so alive. I haven’t seen such animation in him in two years. It really woke him up!” said Bernice. “He said it’s the greatest invention since Edison’s electric light bulb. It opens a new world, a positive world for people who need stimulation.”

A computer equipped with the technology was placed in the Daughters’ common room with the help of the Information Technology department of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. They provided, at no cost to DOI, the equipment and staff training and set up a Skype account.

Daughters residents are now “visiting” with children and grandchildren who live as far away as Ukraine, England, and Oregon.

“This really lifts the spirits of our residents. It feels so good for them to see the faces of their family members. It has been working for residents who are confused and those who are not,” said Daughters of Israel assistant executive director Susan Harris.

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