Your Permanent Record

My 81-year-old mother - until recently a computer-phobe - is living the future. Not so long ago, whenever I would visit her, the first question she'd ask was "Which pictures did you bring?" And, as she is a Jewish mother, whichever pictures I brought were, somehow, the wrong ones - until one day I said, "All of them. All the pictures I have taken since the last time I saw you." I had my laptop with me. We went through the photos, and when we got to the last one, my mother said, "I want that." I assumed she meant the image on the screen and offered to print it. But no, she wanted the computer itself. I bought her one and loaded it up with pictures.