Where's Grandma?

We have recently had a death in my wife's family and it has caused a huge disruption. Grandpa passed away and so the family needs to take extra care in providing for Grandma. Fortunately a lot of plans were in the works before the death as it was somewhat expected. After the funeral, the family had an event where everyone could share their memories of Grandpa. Everyone expected Grandma to let them know when she was leaving. Instead she snuck out and didn't tell anyone.

Grandma's departure didn't raise any red flags until she didn't show up at her daughter's house in a timely manner. Grandma was lost. Unfortunately she has a horrible habit of not charging her phone and everyone assumed it was dead. It was only mostly dead and wouldn't take a call. The family was able to access her credit card statement and see where she last purchased gas. Then one of Grandma's sons called the carrier of her mobile phone and was able to get a faint ping location. I have to admit that I didn't even know that was possible. They found her 7 hours away from home. Let's just say she got really lost. Needless to say, it was a rather sleepless night for everyone in the family as they worried about Grandma. Everyone could finally go to sleep when they could see the credit-card charge for a motel in the middle of nowhere. The next morning, Grandma's daughter drove to meet her and caravan home.

Last week the family got together and worked on solving some of the problems that led to Grandma getting lost. First, they got her a new phone with a long-lasting battery. Second they got her a wireless charger so she just has to put the phone on the charger next to her bed. Finally, they installed a tracking device in her car. I understand you can get them for your teenage drivers so you know where your kids have your car at all times. Guess what? It also works with Grandmas. Grandma saw that they were fiddling with her car and asked if it would help diagnose car problems. It does that too, so they responded in the affirmative not wanting her to know they were lo-jacking her car.

A couple of days ago, Grandma got caught eating a brownie before dinner. The daughter reminded Grandma that she was making dinner and a brownie would spoil the meal. Instead of a pithy response like, "I'm old and may not live until dessert," she stormed out of the house and drove away. Naturally she left her phone at home and nobody could track her. You would think that they could just look at the tracker information from the car. Funny story, nobody installed the software and that wasn't possible. That problem is now rectified. Fortunately Grandma cooled off a little bit and eventually came home.

The moral of the story is to be sure you finish installing all of the software for your tracking devices before you need it. Otherwise it won't be worth a thing.