Eli Saslow

The machine can hear her making coffee and it says, do you want to come sit over here and have coffee?

Sure.

And I'll take you through my screen virtually to this beautiful coffee shop in Paris or Croatia.

Yep.

Would you like to do yoga together?

Would you like to do some breathing exercises?

I know that sometimes in the afternoon you like to rest and take a little nap.

Would you like me to play some soothing music?

This thing starts to make itself a part of her routine.

And she finds herself, rather than purely resisting it, almost expecting it to engage her.

She likes the fact suddenly that she wakes up and something is talking to her.

She becomes accustomed to it.

And so gradually, instead of just the machine prompting her eight times a day, she begins to prompt it a little bit.

She's asking it questions.

In those moments where she struggles to recall a word, she now has something next to her that can help.

And there are little ways where she finds herself suddenly leaning on it and wondering sometimes, is this now my new companion?

Ellie Q becomes a really important part of her days.

These moments in the house that used to be filled with silence are suddenly filled with conversation and dad jokes and word games and all of these things.

And one of the big things that happens is that Jan goes to her annual checkup at her doctor and

And she takes the memory test that she takes every year.