My mother turned 81 years old last month.
She is still very active, independent and mentall sharp. She works out at the local gym, takes fitness classes and is involved in local politics. She goes out to lunch with friends and has no problem driving to the mall to go shopping. I make sure to check in on my mom everyday. I worry about her living alone. She is very likely to climb on a ladder to fix something or try to move heavy furniture on her own, and there’s the potential of her getting hurt. There’s also the concern of a potential break-in. I finally decided to invest in a home security system for my mother. She now gets an alert when someone pulls into her driveway. If anyone tries to enter the home without the proper code, an alarm sounds. When we first had the system installed, my mother set off the alarm several times. She’d then get a call from the monitoring company and need to verify her safety with an agreed upon code. I also get notified by the monitoring company. I’m thankful that my mother has now gotten familiar with the security system. She has surveillance cameras showing an exterior view of the property and can check the real-time stream anytime from her phone or tablet. There are motion activated lights around the perimeter and glass breakage sensors on all of the windows. Plus my mom now has access to a panic button. If something should go wrong, whether she gets injured or is afraid of whoever has shown up at her house, she simply pushes that button and the proper authorities get notified.