A Video Call with Grandma

Lucas lives in Boston, and his grandmother Rosa lives in a small town three hours away. For her birthday, the family gave her a tablet to talk by video. Rosa was excited but a little afraid to break it.

On Sunday afternoon, Lucas phoned her to explain the first step. He stayed on the phone while he called her tablet from his computer. “Open the app with the green icon,” he said. Rosa found it and answered his call to say hello. Lucas, however, saw only a black rectangle.

He asked Rosa to look at the top of the tablet. After a minute, she found a small sticker covering the camera. “I put it there when I was not using the tablet,” she said. She removed it carefully and the picture appeared immediately.

Then they had another problem: Lucas could see Rosa, but she could not hear him through the tablet. He was still talking to her on the phone, so he asked her to press the volume button on the side of the tablet. Rosa raised the volume. They ended the phone call and could finally talk by video. Both of them started laughing.

Before the call ended, Rosa took a card to write the steps: open the app, find Lucas, press the video call button. She promised to call every Sunday, and Lucas promised to answer.