My grandmother is 93-years old. She lives alone in an appartment located in a building for old age (but autonomous) persons. She’s been a widow for about 45 years. She speaks Cantonese (and not anything else) and is gradually losing her sight. She can’t go much outside because of our harsh Canadian winter. Otherwise still very healthy (relatively speaking) and sound of mind.
I only started visiting her more frequently recently (since my Taiwanese wife can speak a bit of Cantonese) and feel enormous guilt for the fact that it must be very lonely and frankly boring to end your life like that :(. What is worse is that we are probably going to Japan for a year in about a month so won’t be able to see her for awhile.
So, apart from visiting her as much as possible before we go, what could we do to make her life more comfortable, interesting and enjoyable? Money would not be a problem so we’re open to any ideas. We had thought to buy her audio books but they are hard to find in Montreal (but we are still looking).
Well, being in software engineering, I also thought of finding technological solutions. But she is losing her sights (going blind) so browsing wouldn’t work too well. Plus, she is basically saying that she couldn’t learn how to use the new sound system I’ve lended her because it is too complicated so you can imagine a computer…
However, I did think of configuring what basically would be a videophone (webcam + streaming audio) - that would be nice if it does not require that she actually has to manipulate the thing and would enable us to talk and check on her from Japan.
There are a number of organizations which provide services to the lonely or isolated elderly. Is your grandmother located in Montreal?
Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, is a great organization which has a Montreal division. They send visitors to the home of elderly people as well as scheduling outings, parties, and other activities.
It looks like Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal might also be able to help. (The website seems to be out-of-date, so you may have to do some research to find more accurate information.)
I don’t know if this is helpful or not, mostly because I don’t speak the language of the site, but is it possible that Amazon@Japan would have more Chinese audiobooks, since they’re geographically closer to China than the US? I can’t find anything on the US site but audiobooks to teach you Cantonese which isn’t what you’re looking for.