Generation Gap.

Today I spent 2 hours teaching my nanna how to use paint. I came to her house after work to pick up my washing (my machine is currently out of order to say the least) to find her and her husband sitting in their computer room cutting up pieces of paper. I noticed a large box of plain white stickers and asked her what she was doing. Simply she replied; I am using the stickers to cover up the bits I don't want and then I am going to photo copy them so it doesn't look messy and give them to my friends. At 70 something years of age my nanna has decided to make a little business. She is selling home made candles and bath salts etc. She wholesales the bath salts and was making up some fliers to show a friend. After a couple of minutes I got on the computer, made her a simple logo and began cropping and pasting things from the website she uses to make fliers. She was amazed by Paint, to be honest I have never seen someone SO amazed by something so simple. I tried to slow down and show her how to cut and paste (without using short cuts I might add) so that she could play around with it herself. I could see her watching me cut and paste and cut and paste and cut and paste, but really I know she would have completely forgotten it when I left. I used paint to erase a few sentences and she completely thought it was magic, how could I make something disappear?

It was so cute to watch her so amazed by something which I learnt as a child. Our generation take something as small and simple as Paint for granted. We don't realise how much we know and how little the generations before us learnt in regards to computers and the internet. My nanna has dedicated herself to learning our new technologies. She has an email address, is a member of numerous candle related websites and has recently joined facebook to keep tabs on the grandchildren (in particular the one who has gone over seas indefinitely). She doesn't realise how far she has come and what she has learnt. She has come from a town where there was little electricity or running water. She spent months on a boat from Italy to Australia to follow her family. She raised 4 children (alone), is a grandmother of nine and great grandmother of two (so far). She is an amazing woman and is amazing to want to continue learning even now. I doubt she realises how great she is.