I come from a large Italian family.
Most of my older aunts and uncles do not own computers.
If they do, they are most proficient at sending out annoying "forwards": jokes, recipes for sauce, offensive political stuff, or "mistake" email that is suppose to go to someone else who has an email address close to my own.
Most of the nieces and nephews judiciously guard their own email addresses and cell phone numbers from the aunts and uncles. This is for self preservation only and to avoid the dreaded daily "forwards" that appear in our inbox.
Working in the library, close to relatives, I am not always so lucky. I was recently recruited because "hey, you work in a library that's close to the causeway and you know the computer" to write a tribute page for my Uncle's North High Reunion handbook. The "rough copy" was handwritten on legal paper with enough text (and long Italian surnames) to fill a whole book, not just a page. When I tried to explain to my uncle about font size, white space and correct editing, he was unimpressed.
There were also pictures to scan and include, from old yellowed newspaper clippings and clip art of the Marine insignia.
After struggling with these pictures and the text for an entire evening I enlisted the help of my daughter who reasoned, "I can easily reduce and photoshop the clipping as long as you don't give your uncle my email".
My uncle "loved" what we had done with the pictures and the ultimate final product went through numerous edits and "additions" of text. Every time I would show him the "final copy", he would think of another person to add or something else to mention until every inch of the 1/2 sheet was covered.
The neat thing was that my daughter and I were able to use google docs to create the original, edit the text, add more names, correct the spellings (this was tough) and otherwise work together but separately on the same document.
In appreciation for my daughter's hard work I have kept her email address a secret from the relatives and from the Barzini family.
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