I've always been close to my mom's twin sister. In fact, I did a report on her for an Ancestry report back in 6th grade. She is living in a facility for people who can't live on their own, and this whole pandemic thing has been hard on our family because we can't go and visit her. In fact, the first time I saw her since the beginning of the year was back at the beginning of November. 

One of the things I have been doing to help her know I'm thinking of her, besides calling her, is looking for items on Amazon that I think she'd like. Whether it's snacks or coloring books or just little things that made her day, it's fun to find things that I know she'll like. So, if you're someone with family or friends in a facility, even if you can't visit them, sending them something to make them smile will go a long way to cheering up your loved ones. Yes, I know that this is more for you than for the person in the facility, but I think that in this case, the end justifies the means, don't you?

Now, unfortunately, this didn't work for my aunt because the Internet isn't the best at her place. But one of the best apps that you can have someone at the facility download on your loved one's device is Zoom. In June, my mom and aunt had their 80th birthdays, and due to the pandemic, we couldn't have the big in-person party we wanted to have. So, my sister in law arranged a Zoom chat as a surprise for my mom so that everyone could get on and wish her a happy birthday. Due to the circumstances, my aunt couldn't get on. But for those who can get on Zoom to chat from their facility, it's not quite as good as seeing someone in person, but there's nothing like seeing someone smile at you to brighten up your day. And, because you're not in the same room, no face masks required!

Finally, one of the things that my aunt has is a lot of spare time on her hands. It gets boring. After all, there's only so much television that you can watch. So, when you visit your loved one, we have a few game apps that we recommend you download onto their device so that they have plenty of fun things to do and keep them busy. If they like hidden object games, and their Internet isn't that great, here's a list of the top ones to download. If you are looking for word games, 4 Pics 1 Word is a good option that doesn't require the Internet. These kinds of games can help keep their mind sharp and keep them from becoming bored.

Along with games that you can play offline, you can also buy them some books and download them to their device. Even if they don't have a Kindle device, the Amazon Kindle app can solve that problem for you. Or, if they are a movie buff, Amazon Prime Video allows you to download many of the movies to your device so that the Internet isn't required.

Please do what you can to help them through this hard time, and we'll all get through it.