On Thursday afternoon I was looking up tips for opening remarks on the Internet. I am speaking about Care for the Caregiver this week, and want to make my audience laugh. It is pretty gruesome subject, so laughter is helpful. I found some good information and decided to take a photo of the suggestions that a particular website recommended. And my phone camera works wonderfully for that sort of thing. It is an (almost brand new) 3-month-old Apple iPhone XS. It has been a pleasure.

However, every so often when I tap it to make it come awake, nothing happens for a few seconds. This is something that has caught my attention more than a few times. This time as I took a photo for myself so that the information would be at my fingertips, the phone went black. Nothing. I tapped it in vain. Nothing would wake it. When that happens it is just baffling, then infuriating, then frightening.

What was I to do? The plans were already made to spend the weekend in the country. But without a phone it would be impossible. Since my mother is 101 years old it is imperative that I be able to be reached by her caregivers. Such a feeling of sadness and desperation came over me. There was only one place to turn. APPLE CARE.

I called the number which of course I know by heart. And the woman I spoke with told me I must make an appointment to go to an APPLE Store in the area. “Isn’t there a way to ‘hard re-set’?” the phone I asked. But she said she did not know. She did not appear to believe it was possible. Sigh. Always get a second opinion.

The next day I appeared at the store at 1:45 for my scheduled appointment. It sounded as if there was a game of some sort going on. The store was packed with customers. The volume of the speakers was amazing. They sent me to a table near the Genius Bar to wait for someone to help me. While I was waiting for a woman who had been assigned to me another Apple employee stopped by my table. His name was Cyrus. And he was amazing. Aside for being beautiful to look at he was kind and smart. He almost immediately did a hard re-set and my phone sprang into life. It was a miracle. (to me)

If only the lady I spoke with on the phone the day before had told me what to do, I could have saved myself a lot of time.

Now I have my phone fixed and if it does this again I will know what to do. But also, if it continues to happen they will give me a new phone. I LOVE APPLE.

I am not sure what the point of this story is, get a second opinion, learn how to hard reset an iPhone, or just ‘relax’. But all is well that ends well.

Copyright?. 2019 Bonnie B. Matheson