My grandma loves Bingo! She used to play twice per week at the local community center. It was her thing she loved to do with her friends. She would walk the mile to the community center, and then when the games were over, she would walk back again. It gave her something to look forward to each week and she would really get into it. One night, she called me a little before 12am and she sounded like she just had half dozen shots of espresso. “Jen,” she said, “I won! I won three times tonight!” She started laughing. As tired as I was, I couldn’t help but smile knowing how happy my grandma was feeling. It felt good to know she had something to be excited about.
Over the years, fewer and fewer of her friends were making Bingo nights due to various ailments and injuries associated with old age. It made my grandma sad not to have her friends with her for Bingo night. Eventually, even she stopped going sometimes. It made her even more sad to miss Bingo.
I tried convincing her to go out and play Bingo as much as possible. “Make new friends,” I would say. But I couldn’t seem to sway her. She seemed content with turning into a zombie in front of the TV. She was becoming less and less energetic than she used to be. I couldn’t figure out what to do.
One night, I did a random search on the Internet. I typed in “Bingo” to see what would come up and came across galabingo.com. I gave it a browse.
I immediately went to visit my grandma the next day and sat her in front of her computer. “You’ve got to see this,” I said. I showed her how she could play Bingo online just as easily as she could at the community center. I showed her how she could even set up games with her friends! She was never much for using the computer, but she seemed interested. She called two of her friends and before long the three of them were all playing Bingo together.
A couple nights later, my grandma called. “I won! I won!” she said, “Thank you for showing me this. We’re having so much fun!” It felt so good to hear my grandma’s sounding upbeat and full of energy again. I learned that whenever she wasn’t out playing Bingo at the community center, she was online playing with her friends who couldn’t make it to Bingo nights. She was even making new friends and getting them in on online Bingo games. For my grandma, the convenience of online Bingo was a no brainer.