An iPad would be perfect for dad

The back story

Just over a year ago my able bodied, active, country living 72 year old father had a massive stroke which paralyzed the left side of his body.

Just over year later, everything has changed for he and my mother.

They now live in a small 55+ apartment in the city, after having spent their lives in a large three bedroom house on a sprawling property in a rural area. Then there's the shop. My dad's huge garage where he spent most of waking hours tinkering with (but never completing) no end of projects. And hosting visitors who would drop by to shoot the breeze and drink beer.

He hunted and guided visiting hunters. He fished and fixed things. He wandered in the bush picking blueberries and mushrooms in their season. He mowed the huge lawn and the field behind it summer, and plowed people out of their snowed in yards with his CAT in winter. That was his life. Then the stroke took it all away.

Now he watches TV. Obsessively. My brother and I and our partners have cast about for other things to engage him, games, books, but nothing can replace the life he lost.

Since the stroke he has also suffered a couple of major seizures, a potential side effect, that are devastating and erode much of the progress he has made. He will never really recover, and on the one year anniversary of his stroke, I think he finally realized that and it hit him hard. He began backsliding in his physiotherapy and descending into morose.

So I bought him an iPad. A 73-year old stroke victim with diminished capacity who has never been on the Internet in his life.

This should be fun.