Forever Connected,

After a tragic car accident—while I was on a school trip in Costa Rica—my parents and grandmother were violently rear-ended on the highway, propelling their car into the air and across two lanes, over the guardrail. My grandmother, who was 80 years old at the time, was hospitalized for three months and underwent seven surgeries under anesthesia. As doctors fought to save her legs, we began to struggle increasingly with our ability to stay connected with her.

Communicating from overseas, we tried every available free option—FaceTime, WhatsApp video calls, Facebook calls—but all of them quickly became too confusing for her. She couldn’t remember which buttons to press, became disoriented, or simply forgot to plug in the devices. Staying in touch has become nearly impossible, intensifying the isolation she is already experiencing due to her disease. This causes our family profound distress.

We child-proofed iPads, reconfigured her phone, and even purchased a new and improved one. None of it has worked.

The only device that remains consistently in use is her television. Once it’s on, she doesn’t need to do anything else. She simply leaves it on a single channel. That’s when we began to imagine a different solution—one that could push communication directly to her TV screen, allowing for us to stay visually connected on a daily basis, keeping her engaged without confusion or feelings of abandonment.

This technology will be nothing short of a miracle for our family and we can only imagine how many others it could help as well.