Looking for ideas to help when 86 year old mom is home alone and can't remember where she put her trac phone.

Just an opinion, ur Mom is at a stage she should not be left alone. Especially over a weekend. If she can't find her phone, can she take her meds? Calling 911 all the time is not good either. This means she can no longer distinguish between what is an emergency and what is not.

I agree, she needs a landline. A phone that does not plug into an outlet just plugs into a phone jack. One that is not a cordless. I say this because, when the electricity goes out, so does the phone. You need one like the old fashioned phones as close as u can get.

We're in our early 60s. We have smartphones *and* a landline. Sometimes cell towers fail, and sometimes landlines fail. Since we have both, we're almost never incommunicado (except in the case of extreme power outages).

Also ... we've had the same landline number for over 35 years, and we have relatives who are far older than we are. It's hard on them when people change numbers, so, for the duration, we won't change ours.

ineptathis, landlines are extremely important for us older folks to have in our home :) How to use one is ingrained in our minds for the last half century and more.

One very important thing to remember that when someone dials 911 from a land-line it automatically gives to the 911 Dispatcher the address of where that landline is connected. Thus, if an elder has a stroke and can get to the phone but cannot speak due to the stroke, the dispatch can send out EMT's to make sure everything is alright.

Cannot do that with the cellphone unless the cell has some type of GPS location and even then it may be hard to pin point property location, especially in an apartment building.

Us older folks grew up with landliens, thus we know when the phone rings, pick up the receiver. With a cellphone, one has to stare at it trying to remember how to do answer this crazy thing :P My boss has a Smart Phone, and honestly I have no idea how to answer it. But then again, he may not know how to answer my flip-phone.

I have a land-line phone in every room of the house. No fear of misplacing those phones, and too big to fall between the sofa cushions :)

What a guy. That is the best cop story I have heard for a while.

You should let your local media know and get this great cop a big public woohoo.

I think a landline might be helpful. I got one, well a new one for mom, with large buttons via Amazon. However, she would see last person who called, and think they called recently so she would call back at 1 3 4 in morning. So there are downsides. My mom and phones are whole other topic. 7 cells. Could never figure out one of.
OY.