I wish you the best of luck!
I am convinced an iPad would be more use to my mother than her laptop. I have a hard time considering her a "senior", but at 65, I guess she is. Over the years I have become the primary means of tech support for my parents & it has not been easy. I think the hardest time was when my mom stopped using AOL as an ISP. Migrating her from AOL mail & keywords to an actual web browser & email client was really hard on all of us. Since then, I have managed to keep their laptops and a wi-fi router running.
My mom primarily uses her laptop for email, sending/ receiving pictures with family, internet searching, checking weather, and reading news articles. She get confused with computer file systems & is always afraid she will screw something up or delete the wrong thing. I think an iPad would put her more at ease and she would get more out of it if she wasn't a nervous wreck every time she turns it on.
One thing she dislikes about using her laptop is the big ordeal caused by getting it out to use it for something quick. She will avoid doing quick tasks like pulling up a photo, looking up a recipe, or sending an email simply because she doesn't want the hassle of getting the laptop, waiting for it to boot up, shutting it down when she's done, etc... I think if she could just pull an iPad out and use it right away without all of the waiting, she would get more out of the internet & technology in general.