It’s been six months, Mom, and you still find ways to surprise me! While it is these 26ths of each month that remind me of the hole in my heart created by your departure, I wanted to talk to you about another hole.

Remember how you used to complain for years that you could vividly smell the strong odors from the downstairs neighbor when she cooked curries or catfish? You insisted that the smells were coming from the return air duct under the air conditioning unit that you never powered on. I assured you that the air ducts weren’t connected and moreover, it would be ridiculous for there to be an air passage between the two units. Nevertheless you persisted and asked me to duct tape and seal the return air duct to prevent the strong odors.

Just a couple of weeks ago, there was an issue with the A/C unit where it was dripping into the downstairs neighbor — was that you getting back at her for the catfish smells?

During the repairs, a technician that crawled into the return air duct found — much to his surprise — a large triangular piece of floorboard completely missing in the corner of the return air duct. His best guess was that when they were framing the building, they came up short in the corner and were too lazy to custom cut a triangle shape. They figured it was of no consequence. But what they did was leave a good-sized open cavity (big enough for a football to drop between you and the unit below) for the smells of the neighbor’s cooking to waft into your unit.

I’m not quite sure anyone else heard it, but at that moment there was a shrill voice in my ear yelling “SEE, I TOLD YOU!!”

As with most things in life mom, you were right all along!

I love you and continue to to miss you every day. But when things like this happen, I know I don’t have to miss you very much because you’re still very present in my life.