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Mom And I Fix The AC

She can still impress me

Shefali O'Hara
3 min readMay 14, 2023
Mom at 83 years old

My 83 year old mother turns out to be surprisingly handy. When she was younger, she was the one who often took on small repairs around the house, despite the fact that my father had an engineering degree and she had one in liberal arts. However, while my father was great at theoretical math, Mom was better at using a screwdriver.

As she’s gotten older, she is less energetic and more physically fragile.

Yet somehow, she can still rise the occasion when needed, particularly as she tries to support me, her daughter, who is fighting metastatic brain, lung, and liver cancer.

While technically I don’t think I’d be classified as old, since I am in my 50s — I think that makes me middle-aged? I feel old these days. Going through various cancer treatments will do that to you.

However, a recent incident showcased that I’m not useless now either.

I woke up noticing a bad smell. There was mold growing on the window AC unit in my office.

Bad in any situation, but potentially a disaster for an elderly woman (my mother) and someone fighting cancer (me).

Mom had gone to bed but when I knocked on her door to let her know we had a problem, she immediately got out. She didn’t jump (she doesn’t do that anymore)…

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Shefali O'Hara
Shefali O'Hara

Written by Shefali O'Hara

Cancer survivor, Christian, writer, engineer. BSEE from MIT, MSEE, and MA in history. Love nature, animals, books, art, and interesting discussions.

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