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MARLO

So anyway, they got in this conversation about television and my mom was complaining about. how expensive it is to have cable, and my daughter-

STEVE

We all do that. Yes. 

MARLO

Yeah. My daughter Kayla goes, well, I don’t pay for cable. My mom was like, well, how does that work? And she starts talking about streaming and the next thing you know, I’m putting the internet out at my mom and stepdad’s place.

STEVE

Wow. 

MARLO

Not for computer usage, but so that she can have Netflix and Hulu! So I thought, well-

STEVE

Why don’t you just get her a Roku stick or-? 

MARLO

Well, I decided on a TV that’s connected. You know, smart TV. So at the same time, I got her a little Chromebook. And she started finding out about Facebook and she loved that part of it. And my stepdad was very ill at the time. I put in a couple of Amazon Alexas and under the guise that you guys can just talk to this. And my stepdad fell in love with it immediately because he’s an old Western movies guy, loves the old music from that era of the fifties and the sixties, the Cowboys and whatever and he could just say, play Gene Autry and this thing would actually play Gene Autry. He was just like, you know-

STEVE

Now, now, now, you got me thinking. It’s like, huh. Christmas gift for my father-in-law this year.

MARLO

Yes. Well, so this gets to that. But my hidden agenda here was that they would have a way to communicate. My mom’s a little stubborn. Like I said, my stepdad was ill. He passed away a couple years ago and when I was setting this up, I set it up to their phone system as well. There was an adapter that you could get, that you could adapt a landline phone. Because she actually still has a rotary phone.The rotary phone that I grew up with, Uh, well it broke down a couple years ago. They came out and replaced it with a rotary phone. 

STEVE

Nice. 

MARLO

She pays a lease on this thing and they actually, they must laugh about this. $8. It’s still on her wall. It’s so great. And anyway, so I bought this device, it was like a hundred bucks to attach it to her Alexa. I get this weird phone call at seven o’clock in the morning and I’m like, I’m looking at this and I don’t answer because I think it’s a spam call then there’s a message that was left and it, and my phone transcribed it and it said, my name – Marlo. And then call 9 1 1. And I’m like, what in the world? What kind of message is this? And I start thinking about it and I’m like, did my mom fall or something? And then just at the same time, the phone rings again and I pick it up this time and it is my mother and she has fallen and- 

STEVE

Okay, now you think of the life alerts? Alexa, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up. 

MARLO

Yes. But she doesn’t have a life alert again. She’s got Alexa. She, she’s a little stubborn this way. But I put these Alexas in her house for this reason, just in case something were to ever happen-

STEVE

You are a good son 

MARLO

-and she actually used it and it worked.

So, but it gets better than this. So I talked to her, of course she’s she’s able to talk, you know, just like she would, you and I are talking right now. And then on top of it, I got off the phone with her real quick. I called 9 1 1, got the ambulance in the route. I got ahold of one of her neighbors and she lives in a rural area outside of Minot and friends on the way. And then Alexa has this drop in feature that you can have set up within your circle. So I went into my phone, I see mom’s Echo. I tap on that and just like that, I’m now talking to her again. 

STEVE

Wow. 

MARLO

So I didn’t have to, I didn’t have to call a phone that she had to answer. I could actually talk to her and comfort her and tell her that I have an ambulance on the way. I have her friend coming over, but there was still gonna be a, like a 15 minute gap before somebody could even get there, because again, she lives in a rural area. So I was able to visit with her, and I could just tell that in, in a minute or two that even though she was unable to move 

STEVE

Soothing. 

MARLO

Oh, I, I can’t imagine the fact that she was able to communicate somebody 

STEVE

Lowering stress level.

MARLO

Exactly. You know, and, and then find out later on. Um, you know, and I got there just as the ambulance was getting to the hospital or whatever. She ends up, she had fractured both hips. Wow. I mean, there’s no way she’s moving. Right. She couldn’t crawl anywhere. She couldn’t get anywhere at all.

STEVE

Well, okay, so in a case like this too, because your hips are very vascular, large, flat bones, and you have some serious possibilities of bleeding 

MARLO

Yes. 

STEVE

So time is critical in a situation like this. So without that technology- 

MARLO

Well, I just, I just wonder how long now, this was the day before Thanksgiving, so of course we’re all gonna be, as her kids gonna be checking in with her, right? but if it was any other time, you know, it could have probably been days before somebody would possibly would’ve checked in on her because, you know, so this a ability for her to just, as long as she could utter Alexa and call Marlo or call my sister, or whatever, you know, she had that ability to actually talk to somebody.

STEVE

Wow. 

MARLO

I think it’s just amazing and it’s, and, and no monthly fee with this or any of this other stuff. So 

STEVE

How long before it’s “Alexa, have Marlo send his drone to take me to the hospital”? 

MARLO

Yeah, that’s a good question. Seriously, yeah, I, I, I’m. You know, whether or not, and, and I, I get into this privacy concern a little bit cuz we all talk about it and we laugh about, you know, 

STEVE

Well there’s the other big, big brothers watching and Alexa eavesdropping.

MARLO

If I say that I love Doritos, you know, within an hour I’m gonna see a commercial for Doritos on my phone or a drone, just drop ’em off at your phone or whatever. Right. And we’ve, you and I have had this conversation and it’s true. It happens. 

STEVE

They’re, well and it’s like the connectivity with the Ring doorbells that people had concerns about that was legitimate, but there’s security layers to that. Yeah. But, but you know, part of it comes down to, okay, you have an elderly parent that was in a life-threatening situation and technology mitigated that.

MARLO

Yeah, yeah. Added comfort to this whole situation. 

STEVE

There’s a balance to this.

MARLO

Yeah. So I, I just, you know, if you’re thinking about getting your parents something for Christmas and they don’t have an Alexa or a Google Home appliance or any of these, Speakers. First of all, they’re gonna love you for it because they can just pull up Gene Autry or Yeah.

STEVE

Especially if they like Westerns 

MARLO

Yeah. Or whatever kind of music they like. 

STEVE

My mother-in-law, pulling up Hallmark. 

MARLO

There you go. And you could connect these to your television too, and talk to them. And, and they do, of course. All kinds of things. They, I, I would hear, uh, the questions, they would ask it all the time if they were, you know, my, my mom and stepdad did