Yes. Dad gets the same Betsy as everyone else: the same computer voice, from the same number, for about ten minutes every day at the hour he picks. She remembers every conversation. $2 a day, billed $60 a month. If he mentions a fall, an illness or someone after his money, you hear the same day.
About two in three older Americans who live alone are women. That leaves a lot of fathers. The Administration for Community Living’s 2023 profile counts 5.7 million men 65 and older living alone. In a 2019 Pew Research Center analysis of time diaries, 43% of men 60 and older who live alone reported spending all of their measured time alone, against 34% of women who live alone.
There is one Betsy. There is no Bert.
Does Dad get a different voice?
No. He gets the same voice every mother gets. Betsy is one character, not a setting, so there is no men’s version and no menu of voices. She says what she is on every call, before she asks a question: a computer voice, not a person. The one thing that changes is the word. You tell us what you call him, and every line we send you uses it: Dad, Pop, Papa.
What does she talk to a man about?
What he did. Betsy asks about his life, not how he feels. If he ran a hardware store for forty-one years, she wants the strangest thing anyone ever tried to return. If he played bass at four hundred weddings, she wants the worst one. She talks about a third of the time; the rest is his.
A call sounds like this.
Hi Leon, it’s Betsy, the one who isn’t a person. You were going to tell me what that man tried to return.
A toilet. Used. He carried it in himself, with the receipt.
He kept the receipt?
Taped to the tank. Forty-one years I ran that store, and he’s still the one I tell people about.
Wait, back up. Did you take it?
I gave him store credit. He bought a plunger.
Huh. Same time tomorrow?
Same time tomorrow.
What do you hear about him?
On Sunday, one text: “Dad had a good week. Ask him about the man who tried to return the toilet.” If he mentions a fall, an illness or someone after his money, or asks Betsy to pass something along, you hear the same day. Everything else stays his, which is why he keeps talking.
How does he start?
You tell him yourself, in your own words. Tell Mom has the scripts, and they work the same for Dad. He calls Betsy when he’s ready, at the same number, any time, and she knows who it is. Or Betsy calls him, once you confirm he’s okay with it and tell him to expect the call. If he says “stop” on any call, it stops, and unused months are refunded. What Betsy is has the rest, a father who lives alone goes deeper, and how do I know my dad is okay? takes on the worry itself.
Questions people ask
Is there a daily call service for an elderly father?
Yes. Betsy calls Dad every day at the hour he picks, on any phone, for about ten minutes, and she remembers every conversation. $2 a day, billed $60 a month.
Does Dad get the same voice as everyone else?
Yes. There is one Betsy, and she sounds the same to everyone.
Does Dad need a smartphone?
No. Any phone works: cell, landline or flip phone. There is nothing to install, charge or learn.
Can he call her himself?
Yes, any time, at the same number she calls from, and she knows who it is.
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