When to cancel the cell phone line

Timmyd

My DW is in stage 5. In the past few months, she has lost complete interest in even trying to use her cell phone. She has not gotten a meaningful call or text on her phone in months. I have been moving all her accounts to my phone number. Every month when I pay the cell phone bill it makes me feel financially stupid. The final step of cancelling the line is going to be hard. She has had that number over 20 years. Her contacts are filled with a lifetime of friends and family.

It is sort of like going in our closet everyday and facing all the shoes and clothes she used to love, but I know she will never wear again. I can't bring myself to do anything other than just let them stay in place.

Phoenix1966

It sounds like she won’t miss it, but you will. Step by step, we say goodbye to a part of our loved one as the disease progresses and it is never easy. One way to think of it is that the money you’ll be saving may help somewhere down the road when she might need additional care.

Carl46

I have kept the clothes and cancelled the phone she no longer knows how to use, as well as the newspaper she no longer reads. I'm not paying a monthly fee to keep the clothes. Also, if I donate the clothes, her closet will look empty and she will want to go shopping.

No part of this is fun. It is worse if you let your heart overrule your brain.

easy23

I can't bring myself to cancel my husband's cell line either even though he is in MC and hasn't used it in 6 months.

CampCarol

I also still have DH’s phone active. To me, there’s a weird sense of finality to cancelling that I’m not ready for right now. Hopefully one of these days I will; I feel financially stupid too!

Timmyd

I found an online service called "Park my phone" that will let me keep my DW phone number for $3 a month. I think that will help emotionally with the transition. Even in her advanced stage, it still her in there and I can see it very clearly. Giving up hope is hard.

Vitruvius

You can move any cell phone number to Google Voice. I did this for my DW’s cell phone number for a one time fee of $20 as I recall. Once transferred you can do several things with it. You can forward incoming calls to your number. You can mange the number either on the web or better with the Google Voice App, available for both Android and iOS. I chose to have Google Voice transcribe the call and then send me an email. I believe you can also have the transcription texted to you. Thus I was able to still receive the few calls from her friends and get back to them long after she even understood what a phone call was. There are no on going costs once you pay the one time transfer fee.

Edit: Just to be clear, once you transfer the cell phone’s number to Google Voice, you no longer need the cell phone. I sold my DW’s.

midge333

I ultimately canceled my wife's phone line and sold her phone - but it took me several months to work up the courage.

SDianeL

maybe disconnect it but keep it. Small steps. You might be able to put it on vacation for so many months depending on your carrier. As soon as my husband was diagnosed I got rid of his phone and we just had one. He was OK with that. So sorry. I know how difficult it is. Hugs.

BPS

My wife got to the point that she could not use the cell phone. I kept it for a while then set up her email to my computer. I sent a message on her face book that she would no longer be on face book. I checked her contacts to see if there was any that I didn't have but should and a couple of months later canceled it.

Dio

I cancelled the phone service but kept the phone. He hasn't used it in 3 yrs. It took awhile for me to cancel service. I was in a cost-cutting mode. While it signified a finality of sorts, it also somewhat was a marker to move forward.

Jeanne C.

I did finally cancel my husband’s number. Bit of advice I wish I had. Change the phone number to yours for any accounts or subscriptions your loved one has. I learned the hard way that some companies (I’m talking to you, Amazon) can be belligerent about phone/text verification even when you have the user name and password for the account.

JJ401

DH has a Tracfone. Costs $125 a year. It’s vary basic and was free on a promotion when he got it.
Can he use it? Absolutely not. But, he’s still mobile and always carries his wallet and phone. I figure that if he wanders away they can use the emergency numbers to contact me or his daughter.

NewCareGiver540

I just decided to cancel the phone and reading all the comments above led me to think it was the right decision. If he used it at all, I would not have done it. But it is never charged, and he cannot play games or text. We have an old one which I may charge just to let him have it in his pocket. I am starting to research using tags to find him if he ever wanders. We were on Life 360 for a while, but it is useless if he does not charge the phone or keep it in his pocket.