i think this covid has a lot of people more .. "clingy" ..."needy" .. not sure what term to use .. just they find someone willing to communicate with them and suddenly they cant stop reaching out to you ..
its awfully thoughtful of you to have :"taken her on" .. but yes .. let her know after ? pm to please not call you .. .
i know its a pain to stop what youre up to to chat about nothing with her but .. just try to not cut her off per say but let her chat, you pitch in some goofy ditty and kinda .. say hey it was great chatting ... thanks for checking in.. we will keep in touch.. il give you a call later this week or so .. and kinda treat it like YOU had called her and now YOU are done with why you had called her and end the call...
or .. answer and say something along lines that you do not have time right now to talk .. vauge is fine no reason to lie or blab your beeswax to her why you cant talk right now .. few quick yes no ok well hey gotta go but we will talk another time when im not busy ..
or .. you call her ... just say hi ... quick ditti something shes into .. then well just wanted to say hi while i had a minute ..
i know its a royal pain to deal with this sort of ordeal but if you have it in you to just try to hang in there ... i kinda believe she just NEEDS to have contact with a live person now and then... yep .. tag .. youre it but by being there she might not need to constantly keep reassuring herself that she has someone to call if she needs to....
she doesnt talk about anything because she isnt calling to talk about anything.. she calls for comfort of human contact ..
i dont know if this what is really happening in your situation but .. if you give her a yell now and then .. even during ur break at work or just a quick hey thougt of you thought id call ... try and have some silly tidbit specific to her to tell her during a call.. or a joke or did you see or i read ..no need to bring up any topic which would turn into some long drawn on discussion about it .. just some short blub to add interest to her day .. a: that you had thought of HER to know it would interest her & b: .. give her more variety to liven up her day..
plus you do not have to answer each time she calls you either ... thats fine too ..
but if at all possible just you casually and gently take charge of the lenght of time you want to spend on the phone with her. tell her tid bits about what you have been doing, what you are doing, ... share some of your life with her and perhaps she might decide to find some ways she can occupy her time too... maybe