Lorna was alone in the room when I popped in at midnight. I asked her if she was ready for the big day. Harry, her great good friend from Oregon was to arrive tomorrow to live with her. Two words appeared on my screen: "Harry died."

Stunned, I wrote back, "Oh no - when? What happened?" and then she told me. He died that evening while packing for the trip.. His daughter had phoned her. She didn't know what to do, alone at home on a farm, far from neighbours, couldn't eat, couldn't go to bed. She kept writing, "I don't know what to do."

I persuaded her to phone her son, and waited alone in the room for her to return. He couldn't be there until 5 in the morning so I stayed up with her all night. Her grief was uncontrollable. It was impossible to get onto any other topic so we spent five hours talking about Harry. When her doorbell rang at ten past five she flew out of the room and I went to bed.

The "room" of course is the "60+ chat room" where hundreds of senior citizens meet regularly and discuss everything that touches their lives. There are chat rooms all over the internet where people with like interests share opinions and add to eachother's store of knowledge, but the special one for seniors is where they become such close friends that one would sit up all night to help out with another's private grief, though they had never met in person.

The example above is not a rare scenario. Helping eachother is common among old folks on the internet, in the chat rooms, by email, and through Web sites. Seniors who use the internet as their communication medium of choice have adapted to it with great enthusiasm, helping eachother with computer problems as they arise to form a huge, world wide company of old folks using their computers to take their places on the internet.

"Chatting" is one way to make instant friends on the internet. Try this, it might work for you, but if you are in a hurry, don't even think about it!.

Find the Chat Room of your choice by searching "chatting" in Google. Whichever one you join, you will get the most enjoyment if you take part and take an interest in the other members. Enjoy.

YOU HAVE TO BE PATIENT
AND ALWAYS BE POLITE.

THOSE AMAZING REUNIONS

When sixty people over sixty who have never seen eachother before gather in Las Vegas for a weekend of fun, there must have been a bond develop among them before the reunion. The bond came about "virtually" in cyberspace, which is as real as a town meeting to these folks.

The Vegas event included people in wheelchairs and some whose arthritis and osteoporitis complicated their getting around, several were very deaf, and sight impairment was not uncommon either. But all these slight annoyances meant nothing to the gang. They had been connecting with one another for years on the Internet, and this was their first time to get together in the flesh.

Home again, from the grand adventure, everyone was so ehthusiastic that the next reunion was immediately in the planning stage - this time for Florida, and there would be hudreds going.

How do people form such strong friendships, unseen, and only in fragmented phrases seen on a small screen? Well, it happens.

Someone's grandson died tragically in a playground accident. Not only did prayers pour in from every corner of the world, including Belgium and Australia, Holland and Hawai'i, but the address of the bereaved grandmother was passed around so people could send cards. Small comfort, but it did give her the moral support, so badly needed when tragedy strikes.

Troubles shared, successes celebrated, greetings spread about at all times of day and night - these are the values derived by that little society of old folks who "live" on the Internet through the chat programs.

You happen upon it by accident. Someone suggests you have a look see, then you're hooked because the people there are so interesting. They pay attention to you, and that's flattering. Then, even if you live alone and seldom engage in social activities, you have a roomful of friends.

We've heard unknowing people say that the Internet cuts you off from the rest of the world. On the contrary, it puts you in touch, and if you happen to be elderly, and getting out and about isn't as easy as it used to be, the Internet might just be the only contact you have at all with other people.

Another type of senior, equally at home on the Internet, is the volunteer who takes the time to provide real information that someone else can use and enjoy. Travel information has been put up regularly by an elderly couple in Japan. They take pictures on their journeys to far away places and put them up on a web page; so you can see Heathrow, for instance, before you ever make the flight to London, and get an idea of what a Paris subway looks like, or a marketplace in India. More about these resources provided by seniors to the World Wide Web can be found HERE.