Fort Lauderdale, Florida — A South Florida teenager turned a deeply personal family experience into a technology project designed to help people with Alzheimer’s stay connected with their loved ones.
Morgan Cole, a student at Pine Crest School in Fort Lauderdale, was especially close to her grandfather, Howie. Their relationship was built around conversation, games and the kind of everyday moments that can become especially meaningful when a loved one’s health begins to change.
“My grandfather was the best grandfather I ever could’ve asked for,” Cole said.
Morgan remembered her grandfather as a role model, mentor and friend who always made time to listen to her.
Grandfather and Granddaughter Shared a Love of Games
Long before Morgan began developing an app, she and her grandfather spent hours playing cards and challenging each other with puzzles.
Howie would turn games into opportunities to exercise their minds, giving Morgan and her brother word problems and math questions and timing them as they competed to find the answers.
“He would give us word problems or math problems and he would time my brother and I, and we would race to see who could guess them faster,” Morgan recalled.
Those memories became even more important after Howie’s health began to change. Morgan’s grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2018, a moment that was difficult for the entire family.
“My grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2018,” Morgan said. “It was hard for my family to see him in some ways disappear.”
As the disease progressed, Morgan wanted to find ways to preserve the activities they had always enjoyed together.
She Couldn’t Find the Right Games
Morgan began searching online for games that her grandfather could play comfortably. But the experience was often frustrating.
“He would get one of those ads and it would completely distract him,” Morgan said. “No matter how hard we looked, we couldn’t find something that worked for him.”
Instead of giving up, Morgan decided to create something herself.
Using her computer coding skills and interest in challenging projects, she began developing an app specifically designed to make games easier and less distracting for people who might struggle with complicated interfaces. The project eventually became a two-year undertaking.
“The whole process took two years,” she said.
Howie’s Place Was Built in His Honor
Morgan named the app Howie’s Place, after the grandfather who inspired the idea.
The platform was designed with simplicity at its core, avoiding unnecessary features and interruptions that could make games difficult to navigate.
“Howie’s Place doesn’t have those extra buttons that can make an experience complicated for a user. all you have to do is click the buttons and play the game without every experiencing an interruption,” Morgan explained.
The app features six interactive games, with different modes allowing users to choose appropriate skill levels.
For some of the more challenging puzzles, players can also use a lifeline. The idea was not simply to create another collection of games. Morgan wanted to build something that could encourage meaningful interaction between generations.
App Has Already Reached Hundreds of Downloads
Since launching in April, Howie’s Place has reportedly attracted up to hundreds of downloads per day.
Morgan said one of the most rewarding parts of seeing the app used has been watching younger family members and their grandparents engage with one another through the technology.
“We’ve seen kids playing with their grandparents, being able to have that engagement together through that technology,” Morgan said.
That response reflects the original purpose behind the project: helping families create shared experiences even when circumstances have made traditional activities more difficult.
Her Grandfather’s Legacy Lives Through the App
Howie died in 2023, before Morgan was able to complete the app. Still, the teenager believes he would have appreciated what she created.
“I feel that in some ways his memory and his legacy is able to live on through the app,” Morgan said.
Howie’s Place is now trademarked and available free of charge on both iOS and Android devices.
What began as one granddaughter’s attempt to find a better way to spend time with her grandfather eventually became a project intended to help other families do something similar.
For Morgan, the app represents more than technology. It is a lasting reminder of the relationship she shared with Howie—and an effort to make sure other grandparents and grandchildren have opportunities to keep connecting.
Have you ever created something meaningful in memory of someone you love? Share your story in the comments and tell us what this teen’s tribute means to you.
