Originally Posted by
Sommerfeld
based on personal experience with 80-year-old relatives and cellphones: unless the OP's 84-year-old grandmother is already a regular cellphone user, you'd be better off giving her a small rock to carry.
+1
I sent my 80+ parents who live in another city my cell phone with a European SIM card to use on a trip last year. They did not want it, but given their age and the trip, I insisted they take it along. I have multiple family and other important numbers programmed in it. I also provided them a printed list of attractions and restaurants with phone numbers. I asked my brother who lives near them to teach them how to use it. He assured me he did.
On their first day abroad I tried calling them to the cell phone and being unsuccessful tried their hotel. “The phone does not work” I was told. “We turned it on but nothing happened . It can’t find the satellite” Huh? It turns out that my brother had left them the impression that merely opening the clamshell turned it on and neglected to impress upon them the necessity of pressing down on the red button. I still chuckle at my mother's surprise when the phone lit up when she pressed the button. Once we got past that little glitch, they used it throughout the trip and it proved to be very useful.
Clearly, Abuela should not have been traveling alone and without a cell phone she could operate . This is a very frightening story and you should be grateful she came through it relatively unscathed