Computers can be lots of fun. You can shop, play games, and interact with people all over the globe. But unfortunately, this is a story about one woman whose computer journey got off to a very rough start: This woman’s first time using a computer was to write her husband’s obituary.
What a bummer. Now she’s going to think computers suck.
Earlier today, 85-year-old Anastasia Hrycenko of Hazleton, PA went to the library to use a computer for the very first time so she could write the obituary for her husband that will be uploaded to the funeral home website in advance of his burial, an experience that has definitely informed her depressing—not to mention limited—understanding of what a computer can do.
Anastasia asked the funeral director if a handwritten obituary would be fine, but the woman was rather short with her on the phone and said, “Typed only,” which was particularly cruel for several reasons: One, Anastasia’s husband of 63 years just died; two, Anastasia neither owns a computer nor knows how to use one; and three, now Anastasia is going to think that the purpose of computers is memorializing your beloved late husband instead of laughing at Uncut Gems memes.
In the three-and-a-half hours Anastasia spent on the computer, all she managed to do was slowly write up a typo-riddled 150-word summary of her husband’s life, without so much as watching a single independent short film on Vimeo or making even one small cryptocurrency investment—despite the fact that Bitcoin is more stable than it’s been in years. To make matters worse, because Anastasia was so new to the computer, her monitor kept going to sleep during the time it would take her to find the next letter on the keyboard—basically cementing her inaccurate perception that computers are just frustrating sadness devices instead of epic world-connecting tools!
This is such a shame. The chances Anastasia ever comes back to the library and has some actual fun on the computer couldn’t be lower after a first experience like this. Fingers crossed one of her great-grandchildren can rise to the occasion and help her play Overwatch or at least lurk some AITA Reddit threads to help turn her opinion of computers around.
