Kathryn and Terrance Zawacki, former Greensburg residents who now live in Orlando, Fla., are examples of a generation that increasingly finds itself caring for parents who are living longer.

Until the couple and Mrs. Zawacki's parents moved together to Florida, the Zawackis helped care for her parents in their Forest County home. The Zawackis are in their 50s, and Mrs. Zawacki's parents are in their late 80s.

But it wasn't experiences with her parents that led Mrs. Zawacki and her husband to create Angel Telecare, a new national check-in service for older people living alone, she said.

While visiting a retirement community near Orlando, Mrs. Zawacki said she learned that a resident in the community had died and his body had not been discovered for four days.

"He had a very loving, doting family," Mrs. Zawacki said of the man, who lived alone. "But they were busy with their own kids and only called on weekends."

The Zawackis researched such incidents and were troubled to find that stories of older people being trapped in their homes after becoming ill or injured were common, and that 44 percent of people age 65 and older lived alone.

"And we decided we wanted to help," she said.

She and her husband came out of retirement to found Angel Telecare, she said, "because if it saves even one life, it's worth it."

The service is a computer-based phone system that can be customized to call subscribers across the nation up to 12 times a day to check in or remind them to take medication.

Mrs. Zawacki said subscribers press 1 to signal they're OK or 3 to ask for help. If a call from Angel Telecare is not answered, the system will continue to call for a while before switching to alert mode and contacting the person's family.

Subscribers can call a toll-free number if they will not be home at the time of the call or if they are going out of town.

Mrs. Zawacki said while the service was designed for older people living alone, it can help young people coming home to an empty house, disabled people and those who have health problems, such as diabetes.

And she pointed out that unlike medical alert pendants and bracelets, a call system isn't dependent on whether the user remembers to wear it.

She cited the case of a woman who had removed her pendant to take a shower and had not yet put it back on when she slipped in her kitchen and fell, breaking her hip.

"She got distracted for one minute, and she lay there for two days before someone came," Mrs. Zawacki said.

But one of Angel Telecare's biggest advantages, she said, is that it doesn't compromise older adults' independence.

While doing research, she interviewed a woman whose daughter had asked her to call an ambulance any time she felt dizzy.

"She said to her daughter, 'I'm 91. Do you know how often I feel dizzy?'

"She didn't want an ambulance screaming up to her door just because she felt unwell," said Mrs. Zawacki, pointing out that Angel Telecare contacts a subscriber's family, not a local hospital.

Mrs. Zawacki noted the call service doesn't replace family contact.

"We're hoping that signing up encourages people to recommit themselves to keeping in touch with their parents or loved ones," she said.

Ideally, she said, Angel Telecare would take over the daily chore of the brief "Are you OK?" call, allowing relatives to get in touch "when they really had the time for a quality talk."

But she said she's also realistic about the demands on people her age.

"When you have a full-time job, kids in school and a million things going on, you may not have time to call your parents more than once or twice a week."

Mrs. Zawacki said the Angel Telecare computer system has the capability to handle an almost unlimited number of subscribers.

Older adults, she said, "say they don't need a calling service. But this service could be a lifesaver for them. We absolutely think it will save lives."

For more information about Angel Telecare, call 1-866-933-2643, e-mail info@angeltelecare.com or go to www.angeltelecare.com.