Inspiration
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
What we learned
What's next for Project Saving Granny
My grandma used to be the one who found everything. Lost homework, a missing sock, the TV remote: she always knew where it was.
Then she started losing things herself. First her glasses, then her keys, then what day it was. She would call my mom at work to ask where she’d left her purse, and my mom, caught between meetings and flights, would say, “Let me call you back.” Sometimes she did. Often the meeting ran long.
My parents weren’t careless. They were working hard to keep our family going, and there were only so many hours in a day. So Grandma spent most days alone, in a house that was slowly turning into a puzzle she couldn’t solve. She searched the same drawers over and over. Eventually she stopped asking for help, because she didn’t want to be a burden. When we visited, we’d find her keys in the fridge and her glasses on the bathroom shelf. She laughed it off, but we could see she was scared.
What she needed wasn’t another app. She couldn’t have used one. She needed someone patient, who remembered for her and picked up every single time she called.
Our story isn’t rare. More than 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, and millions of families are trying to care for them in between work, school and everything else. Too many grandparents spend their days searching, alone.
It shouldn’t be this common. So we built Save It: a camera that remembers where things were last seen, and a calm voice Grandma can simply call. She asks, “Where are my glasses?”, and it walks her right to them.
We couldn’t always be there for her. Save It can. We’re here to save our grandparents.
