Wii Life

Being immune suppressed is particularly challenging in the winter which is flu and cold season.  Working out is one of the challenges since going to a gym is out of the question as is walking on icy sidewalks.  For several years, I’ve gone to my “WII Fit “for work outs never realizing it also was a psychological outlet for being socially isolated.  

At Thanksgiving, one of my grandsons told me, “Grandma, I think your Wii is dying”.  Thinking it was the disk, I ordered a new one.  

After a hectic December, I went downstairs to play Wii in January and even with the new disk, I got nothing.  One daughter said, “Why don’t you get an Xbox?”  Another daughter, in the middle of a move, said, “We just got rid of ours.” My third daughter still had one and said she would bring it the next time she visited.  With everything else going on in my life, I needed the Wii NOW, so I ordered one on-line.

I hooked it all up and got ready. . . .it was clearly not MY Wii.  I had to create a new Mii (the digital me) with gray hair not red, it didn’t welcome me to my 3578th day using it, I had to go through each activity as if I’d never done it before.  But none of that mattered compared to losing my tribe.

When I had first gotten the Wii, years ago when it was the new gaming system on the block, everyone in the family created their own Mii, and we had contests to see who was better at being a penguin sliding on ice catching fish and who was a juggling champion.  I no longer had those Miis and I no longer had the records to try to beat.

I was miserable doing steps without Jason by my side or running and not seeing Taryn bop by with her pony tails or without Leah behind me in Kung Fu.  I hadn’t realized that having these digital loved ones had helped with my winter isolation.  It was the “straw” that broke my back.  

When the girls and their families came for their February visits, I had one request, “Come down and play Wii with me.  I need to have some familiar faces—I’m tried of working out with all of these weirdos and strangers.”  Although weighing in was sometimes painful for them, each daughter went down and created her new Mii.  The grandchildren created theirs and we all started playing Wii Fit, Wii Party, Wii Sports.  

We had a great time challenging each other.  The grandchildren saw that Grandma was quite the golfer (on Wii) and we laughed  at the silliness of some of the challenges.  Rachel was #1 as always in the marching band baton exercise until Roman came a few weeks later and had a perfect score. We played and laughed and exercised for hours.  My cup was re-filled.

Now, I can go downstairs, fire up the Wii and bicycle past all of those wonderful faces (and a few grandson-made-Miis like Michael Jackson, Darth Vader and Winnie the Pooh) remembering the fun we had this very difficult winter.  I can run past cheering family members urging me on.  And I am happy.

My Tribe, putting the WE in Wii