Staying Connected: How the TELUS Digital team is celebrating Mother’s Day

Honouring mom for all she does on the second Sunday in May has been an annual North American tradition for over a hundred years. While everyone has their special ways of marking this special day, this year’s celebrations are going to look different than usual. 

Due to COVID-19 and social distancing, many people are away from their families and unable to connect in person. We asked some of our team members to share the ways they are still staying in touch and making Mother’s Day special for the moms in their lives.

Creating special Mother’s Day moments

“Every May is not only Mother’s day, but my Son’s birthday, my partner’s birthday (mother of my children), and our wedding anniversary. We often combine all of these exciting milestones and celebrations into one big event with my parents and mother-in-law. This year will be different. This year we will celebrate each event as it comes: May 3, May 10, May 15, May 31. We will share the experience with our families remotely and let everyone enjoy their special days, together.” - Oskar Westin, Customer Experience, Digital Accessibility

“My sisters and I made photo books of our vacations together for our mom and nonna/grandma and sent them directly to their homes. It's a nice surprise for them from our time together.” - Justine DiCesare, Insights Analyst, Digital Services

“I recently started doing weekly video calls with my family, who live in a different city. This never appealed to me before, but not being able to see them on an infrequent, though regular basis, has been kind of tough. My mom is a really social person, so I worried about how she'd deal with staying in all the time. But even though she's in her 80s, she's also quite technologically adventuresome, and has been finding all sorts of internet fun to occupy her time. She has even joined an online line dancing class. The pandemic has made us appreciate each other a lot more on a personal level. I'm grateful for her resilience and how she always tries to make fun happy times for all.” - Heidi Tsao, Manager, Design Strategy

“My family is spread out across the world - together we cover 10 hours' of timezone. So for special occasions, we have a family tradition of a virtual toast - sometimes over a family call, sometimes just pausing what we're each doing where we are. For us, it's at noon pacific time - 3 pm EST where my mother & sister are, and 8 pm GMT where my brother and his family are. So honestly, this year probably won't be a big difference for us -because we're so spread out already.” - Steve Tannock, Manager, Platform Tools & Technology

“My mother doesn’t live in the same city and is a total technophobe – no internet, no TV, no cell phone. So I’ve had to be creative to stay connected (she’s also very hard of hearing so while we do a weekly phone call she doesn’t hear too much of what we have to say). We rely on good old fashioned Canada Post for most of our communication and she is always asking for pictures of the kids. I was never very good at printing and mailing pictures, so I use the app TouchNote to send her postcards, I can upload pictures from my phone and it prints a card and mails it to her so she has something to hold in her hand. I hear from other friends and family on the island that she carries them around to show people when she’s out and about. This Mother’s Day, I’ve created a special card for her and we will have a phone call. I'm grateful that we have found a way to stay connected.” - Chelsea Coutts, Learning & Development Manager, People Experience

“For this Mother's Day, I am lucky enough to be able to spend time with my mother and grandmother in person, but we do have family that we are unable to see. As a family we've been hopping on more video calls to catch up with others across the globe and Mother's Day will be no different. My plan is to be able to call my cousins and aunts over video to wish them a happy Mother's Day and give them the kudos they deserve.”- Sareena Motwane, Talent Partner, People Experience

“This Mother's Day we're super lucky to have the ability to stay connected through video calls. For my 4-year-old son, Dax, the extra layer of connectedness that video provides is important to him and allows him to interact with his grandmothers in Ontario, and his 104-year-old great grandmother in BC. We were lucky to have gotten everyone Amazon Echo Show devices at Christmas, as they've been great tools to help keep our family connected during these times! My big challenge is to figure out what craft project Dax can make for his mom, as without teacher support it's something that I'm going to need to figure out on my own!” - Clint Tham, Information Architect, Standards & Resources

Adjusting to new norms & staying connected

Through technology, families can maintain physical distance while still celebrating Mother’s Day together this year. Even though this is a reality we are adjusting to, our team has found creative and thoughtful ways to stay connected while staying safe. This Mother’s Day will be a memorable one for many of us for years to come. 

Happy Mother’s Day from TELUS Digital to all the amazing moms out there!

Our team is growing! To join something awesome, check out our careers page. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more events and updates.