r/SeniorCitizenTips

Ok, this is one of those "Hail Mary" requests! Does anyone have an old iPhone they'd be willing to donate to a desperate senior?

Here's why: my iPhone 13 just died - spectacularly! The screen went black at 1:30 a.m. and I tried to swipe up. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this was more than a "force quit" and just started pressing buttons. (I didn't know as I later researched - the phone was still 'alive' but had a fatal software or battery issue. It was never going to live again. In truth, it was an iPhone 13 that had already been through a tough working life so no shocker.)

Anyway, in the confusion stage Emergency got called with all the random frantic button pushing, and also couldn't get the volume to work to tell the operator asking, "are you there? are you there?" to tell her it WASN'T an emergency. Then waited an hour for the aid vehicle to come on our dark road, they never did. I then couldn't sleep after from 1) wait, why didn't aid come/find me, what if I'd really been in an emergency? and 2) holy, sh*t, I desperately need a phone, now more than ever.

I would have been on the phone this morning to get in the long Social Security phone queue because I am anxiously awaiting my first Social Security check (and hoping not to be evicted if it doesn't get here by the 1st!) I have zero money to buy a phone, or get a plan, and am barely surviving on a limited disabled fund due to an injury and then food from SNAP/foodbank. I literally have pennies to spare.

If there's anyone out there who wants to do a good deed, I could sure use the help. Thank you for even reading this.

In an old parable, a man carried two water jars suspended from a pole across his shoulders. One jar was new and perfect; the other was old and cracked and leaked water along the path.

Every day, by the time the man reached his master’s house, the cracked jar was almost empty. The new jar boasted of its usefulness, while the cracked jar was ashamed of its flaws.

One day the cracked jar said to the man apologetically:

“I am defective. I lose most of the water through my cracks before you reach the house.”

The man replied:

“Yes, but when was the last time you looked at your side of the path? I know all about your cracks, so I scattered seeds there. Every day, when you thought you were merely leaking water, you were watering flowers. Look at this road now!”

The jar looked and was amazed. His side of the path was covered with the most beautiful flowers imaginable.

“Because of you, the master always has fresh flowers on his table. Your cracks have leaked so much beauty into the world that people come from far away just to walk along this path. The say it fills them with joy like nothing else.”

Old age is the perfect time to leak beauty into the world. We think our cracks make us useless; nothing could be further from the truth. The older we get, the more wounds, flaws, and imperfections we carry — but these are the very cracks through which the light pours out.

Little do we know that someone has sown seeds along our path. These seeds can sprout only if we water them through our wounds. Our wounds are sacred. They are conduits of living water — unique life experiences that can nourish the seeds of new life.

Whole jars carry ordinary water; broken jars carry living water.

“One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side… bringing a sudden flow of blood and water.” — John 19:34

By that water, we have been healed. The mystery of healing is that it can come only through the Wound. The older we get, the more sacred our wounds become — and the more healing beauty we can spill.

For the world to flower, people must leak the beauty of their cracks. If we hide them or patch them up with tape, our beauty cannot flow out. When we hide our cracks, our path remains dry and barren. We become rigid and closed in on ourselves — crackpots rather than cracked pots.

When we open them, streams of living water gush forth, and everything begins to blossom.

We do not think much of old age. We think of it as diminishing. And it is diminishing — but in an enlarging way. As G. K. Chesterton put it:

“How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it.”
— Orthodoxy

I was walking in the neighborhood yesterday and an elderly woman came outside and asked me to help her with a rat that was under her sink cabinet.

I went inside and saw two rodents under her sink.

I went home and grabbed a humane rat trap with peanut butter to try and catch them. Stayed a few hours with no luck.

My question is: does the city have any departments or programs to help her with this situation?

She explained she doesn’t have the $400 she was quoted to exterminate the rats.

Any help or guidance would be appreciated greatly.

Location is west sfv.