Arbroath’s senior silver surfer is heading on to the worldwide web to join the congregation of her local church in worship.
Just a few days shy of her 100th birthday and cradling her iPad, Ann Mackintosh said it is important to move with the times.
Tech-savvy Ann has not attended Sunday service at St Andrew’s Church in about five years but has stayed in close contact with the congregation, thanks to CD recordings delivered to her door and sermons recorded on the church’s website.
But tomorrow the internet experience steps up a gear with the first live streaming of a service from St Andrew’s and Ann plans to take a virtual pew.
Technology, it seems, is trying to keep pace with Ann, rather than the other way around.
On receiving her first computer at the age of 90, she enrolled as a mature student on a course at Arbroath College.
She was given an iPad for her birthday a few years ago and happily taps and swipes her way through emails, web pages and FaceTime.
“It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Ann said. “One of my sons was always interested in computers but I didn’t bother my head about it too much back then.
“Then I got the Mac computer about 10 years ago and went to the college to learn how to use it. It’s so short a space of time that things have developed. Well, you get left behind if you don’t keep up!”
The Rev Martin Fair, 50, is delighted that Ann will be going on to the church website at www.arbroathstandrews.org.uk to access the live service.
He said: “It is a big technical exercise for us and we are very hopeful that we will be live on air as planned. There are folks like Ann who are very important to us and I hope they will benefit from us streaming live from the church.
“There is a young guy who is posted down south who wants to stay in touch. We also have a wedding blessing soon where the groom is Turkish and his family have been unable to travel. We’ll stream the blessing live to them in Turkey.”