I admit I am not computer literate and use my computer mainly for email and web browsing. I haven’t had AOL as a provider since dial up days but I continued to use my aol email address. A friend told me that aol will no longer support the free email address. I’ve attempted to search the topic but it is confusing. I never changed my email address and the one I use is my original address and the thought of changing is overwhelming.
Any suggestions as to how I can make the process as painfree as possible?
AIM is pairing back accounts they consider inactive. You should go to www.aol.com and log in with that aol id (you can log into aol mail or the main website, I would log into aol mail)…if you do that, you should be good. They are supporting the free e-mail addresses, they simply are getting rid of addresses that people don’t log into.
So if I actively use my AOL email several times a day, I should be good?
You don’t need to use it several times a day, you just have to log into it once in a while, maybe do it once a month of so. One of the reasons they likely want you to log in is they are actively pushing people to associate a cell phone account with the aol account, so if you ever run into trouble they can send a challenge code to it to allow you to reset your password (they also will let you associate a back up e-mail with it for the same reason)…but you don’t have to do that if it comes up, basically, log it in once a month and you will be fine.
Oh, I routinely check email several times a day!
I got a message from them sometime in the last few months, saying email can be free. So just now I went looking.
https://help.aol.com/articles/free-aol-plan-faqs
In part:
"Free AOL services include:
Your AOL Username and email account, accessible at mail dot aol dot com" There’s more.
I would recommend getting a gmail address. AOL just seems so 1990’s. Use it a while and get used to it. There is also a way to have your old email address automatically forwarded to your gmail account so you don’t miss anything.
The only thing that went away is the free desktop. They are trying to charge for it and it will probably be an epic fail. You can get to your email by going to aol.com on the web. Different layout but all the features are the same.
I still have my AOL email from 25+ years ago! 
I log in maybe twice a year to delete the spam and only use it when I need another email address for a promotion. My primary email is two different gmail addresses and my work email; all three of those are on my phone, but the AOL still lives.
I have tried to move my parents away from AOL, and while I have set up gmail for both of them, neither will use it except for their Android phone for saving their contacts.
We still use our aol emails. (Have gmail too.) We haven’t received any notice that the free accounts are going away. When they took away the photo storage (I think that’s what it was?) years ago, they let us know ahead of time.