Keeping in touch with those abroad

Keeping in touch with those abroad

Keeping in touch with those abroad

My family is scattered in three different places in the country. The distances are vast and it is only practical to visit with them once or twice a year. Several years ago, I decided to try connecting us by phone so that we could have a three-way chat. It turned out that our phone company had a three-way teleconferencing feature. So I set it up and invited the others to join me for happy hour using speaker phones at households with more than one attendee. We all prepared drinks, settled by our phones and had a wonderful hour yakking about what we had been doing since we last met. In fact, that hour stretched into two, we were having such a good time. It was so successful that we decided to try it again the next weekend. Pretty soon we were doing it every weekend. The long distance happy hour became so popular that we decided to set a fixed weekly appointment which would take place unless otherwise notified.

It has been several years now and I am convinced that these happy hours, which still take place, have enriched immensely our family relationships and have helped us maintain our closeness despite the distances. Moreover, our happy hour has become legendary with other relatives, some of whom stop by one of the nodes to join in. Elaborate food spreads have been added over time, with cheeses and breads, smoked salmon and even mussels. It has truly become a highlight of the week.

With web cams and high speed wireless Internet connections, I am now plotting to introduce video conferencing to happy hour. It would be the next best thing to being there.

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