Dear LPG

Until the beginning of this year I was one of those older people who vowed never to learn about information technology.  I decided that I had no reason under the sun to know about it because I have a daughter who is always on hand to do my online shopping and fill in my online forms and, most of the time, I do not even bother to be there while she is working on my behalf.

I suppose that I am what is termed a younger pensioner, and all my children, and many of my grandchildren, have spent years telling me that if I would just give it a go I could have a whole new world opened up to me.  I think that many of my peers outwardly display the same attitude as me when asked about having a go, but secretly I just think that there is so much to learn, and I don’t want to be thought of as silly if I eventually find that I really can’t grasp the basics. 

But last Christmas they all clubbed together and bought me a laptop.  I think that they chose this because way back in my past I was once employed as a secretary which means that long, long ago I already mastered the art of touch typing. 

Well my present did see the light of that Christmas day when I first unwrapped the box and while they set it up for me, but for three months after that I did nothing with it. 

Then one of my granddaughters took me to task.  She told me that practise was the answer and that I should just try to do the same little task two or three times a week.  She set up a diary and taught me how to access it.  

She suggested that there was no point in doing exercises that meant typing lots of pointless sentences because there is something special about being able to see a point to all your hard work.  We decided on a simple diary where I could put a little information about what I had done from day to day would be a good place to start.  That diary would become something that I might like to refer back to as time passes. 

When I started, it was taking me ages to work out how to find the diary on the computer, but I would phone her with lots of questions, which she patiently answered.  On more than one occasion she has spent at least half an hour on the phone while I got it right, or she would include getting to my house as a diversion on her way home  from work to show me some really basic thing because of my frustration.  Within a month I had mastered getting to the diary and could write my sentence and be finished within a quarter of an hour.   I found myself writing a little more than just the one sentence and opening the lap top up more and more often.  And now, four months later, I find myself able to find websites like this one to have a read, and I am proud that I was able to write this letter.  The granddaughter, who persevered with me, showed me how to use my emails to send it to you. 

For many of the readers of this site my achievement may not seem like very much, but it is a start and more than I ever thought I would ever be able to manage considering I was frightened to open the thing six months ago.  I am learning slowly, but I am not trying to win any races or pass any exams and I know that it may be a long time before I will be able to book a holiday or apply for a repeat prescription on line.

So I have a little advice to all the readers who visit and enjoy the LPG online.  Please tell your friends who have thought about it, but never tried IT, that it really is not that hard as long as, like in real life, we just take it one small step at a time.

JW. Forest Hill