"She couldn't really travel anymore and she wanted to come to New York so I thought she could meet New Yorkers virtually," Matthews recalls over the phone. "Every week, I would have a different question prompt to bypass the small talk and people would sit on the chair and talk to my grandmother. Conversations ranged from deep, emotional ones to more casual talks."
"About six months ago, I had an overwhelming feeling of everyone being on edge, stressed out and lonely and thought we need to have some good," says Matthews. "So I said, why don't we bring this back?"
"It started out again as grandmas of family and friends," explains Matthews. "Now I get emails from different grandmas asking to participate, sharing their stories, and hoping to connect with others in similar ways."
"Given Eileen's absence, Matthews has also expanded his roster of wise grandmas willing to dish out advice and grand worldviews to New Yorkers at large, following kick-off questions like 'what do you spend too much time worrying about?' and 'what's one thing you'd change about how you were raised?'"
#virtual-connection #community-engagement #intergenerational-communication #loneliness #creative-projects
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