Mama was an HVAC technician.
My mom passed away when I was young, but I still remembered her vividly.
She was the first female HVAC technician in our area.
Grandma wasn’t happy that she had taken a job from a man, but grandpa was proud of her. Grandma used to tell me how mom would parade in her HVAC uniform and get all these recognitions from her coworkers and other HVAC company. She told me she was sure if Mama had lived longer, she would have owned an HVAC company. Although grandma told the story in a derogatory way, I took it that mom was a great HVAC technician, and she must have loved her job. My daughter was doing her homework, and it was about someone she would have liked to meet. She wanted to write about my mom. She asked me what she did and how she died. I told her that Mama’s sickness took her quickly, but she lived her life before she died. When I told my daughter her grandma was the first woman HVAC technician in our area, she beamed. I went upstairs and found the plaques she received for best HVAC technician of the year, three years in a row. She was going to buy an HVAC company when she found out she was sick. I found pictures of Mama to show my daughter and she asked if she could take some to school to go with her report. When she asked me to come to the school when she gave her report, I cried. My mom was getting recognition again, but from the granddaughter she never knew.