Can You Hear Me Now?

My father-in-law called, excited about the free cell phone and service plan he was going to get. He's on Medicaid, lives in a nursing home,and can barely move most of the time due to advanced Parkinson's. It turned out that Medicaid was offering all its enrollees free cell phone service, regardless of their age and medical condition. I reminded Aaron that he had trouble dialing a normal sized phone. I explained that cell phones are small and difficult to use. 

"It's free!" 

There was no point in arguing. "Free" is to Aaron what a red cape is to a charging bull... irresistible and bound to lead to disaster.

So he immediately cancelled his land line, got the cell phone, and discovered it was...yes... small and difficult to use. David, Sami, and I tried to read the manual, but this was the tiniest, cheapest piece of crap I'd ever seen. Even Mikey had trouble with the itty bitty buttons. Aaron's hands shake like mad, when he can use them at all. 

David tried to show him how to use it, but it was no use. He had to wheel himself down to the office to make phone calls, and it was virtually impossible to call him back. 

David's brother and I talked--if I would get him a regular phone and arrange for it to be hooked up, Steven would pay the bill. I got that done this week, and was even able to get him his old phone number. He'll get a discount, too, and unlimited long distance so that he can call his family out in Arizona.  Aaron called the next morning. 

"My new phone works," he said. 

"That's great," I said. 

"I just got a brochure in the mail today," he said. "It says I can get free phone service with a computer. Can you find out about that?" 

I didn't hang up on him, but I came very close.