"I am worried about my Mom. It's been three weeks since we last heard from her."

"Well, did you try calling her? Maybe she is just busy with her friends." My wife, Sheila,  is the practical one.

"Yes, I did call her. I left a message. Two, in fact. She hasn't called back. It's been days."

"Well, you haven't been there for a while, why don't you go up there this weekend?

My name is Brad. I live in Atlanta and my elderly mother lives in upstate NY in a small city called Hudson.

So I called Mom's cell again, left another message,  and then said "I'm coming up Saturday. I'll pick you up for lunch."

Before I could hang up, she had picked up the phone. "Hi darling."

"Mom, where have you been, I've been calling you for weeks."

"Well, actually, you have only been calling me this week. Three times this week, in fact."

"If you got my messages, why didn't you call me back?"

"Oh, well. I guess I have been busy."

"Mom! We were worried about you. We haven't heard from you in weeks." I must have been raising my voice because Sheila was making hand motions to calm down. I took a breath. "Mom, you know it's hard for me to be so far away. I just want to make sure you are ok." I put the phone on speaker so Sheila could hear.

"You just want to spy on me, you mean."

What? Where was this coming from? "Mom, I'm not spying on you. I don't care what you are doing. I just want to make sure you are ok."

"So why did you put parental controls on my facebook page?"

Oh, geez. "Mom, that was for your protection. You were getting into some really obnoxious conversations; not to mention all the stuff you were buying."

"Well what I say or do on my phone is my business. If someone is being an A**hole, then I tell them they are an A**hole and if I want to buy some t shirts for my grand-kids then I should be able to do that."

My mother is addicted to the internet. We have had to take steps to control her computer usage. Now she just let slip that she has been using her phone to browse the web. I filed that away for a later discussion. "Mom, we've already had this conversation. You agreed that the controls were a good idea. And for the record, those ten t shirts you bought cost $29 each. They were ripping you off."

"Well, Keisha says I am an adult and I should be able to do what I want."

"Keisha? Who's Keisha?"

My mother is no good at keeping secrets. If she is trying to hide something, that is the first thing out of her mouth. For example, when I was growing up, she would say, "Don't you go looking in the trunk of the car for your birthday present."

"No one," she said in a small voice. She has realized she may have said too much.

"Mom, I already have a flight reservation. I'm coming up there on Saturday unless you tell me what is going on."

"Keisha is a friend I met on Chit Chat. We just got talking. That's all."

Sheila is making conciliatory hand motions followed by the 'wrap it up' sign. She is gifted with exceptional social graces and I trust her judgement. So I tell Mom that I am happy she has a nice online friend and is doing ok. We promise to talk again on the weekend and I hang up.

Sheila is already busy with her smartphone. "Chit Chat is a social app. According to Google it is designed for young millenials. It is popular with ages thirteen to twenty two... I'm getting in now... Ok, here is your mom. She goes by 'Nana'. Oh my God, she has a following of over seven hundred kids."

Sheila looked up at me. "Your seventy nine year old mother has an advice blog on a teeny bopper chat room."