South Bay woman nurses broken machines back to life for refugee families NBC Bay Area [Video]

It’s been a while since anyone slept in the spare bedroom in Pat Vandermolen’s Sunnyvale home. “Obviously, not anymore,” said Vandermolen, gesturing around a room that has been taken over as a workshop for repairing old sewing machines.

For the past two years, Vandermolen has fixed over fifty broken sewing machines, which she donates to immigrant families through the Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley’s Refugee Resettlement Program. 

“I’m kind of retired, but now I’ve finally found what I want to do with my life: a sewing machine repair woman,” Vandermolen said. 

At 77 years old, Vandermolen had no prior experience repairing sewing machines and learned almost entirely through watching YouTube tutorials. 

“If you stop learning, you stop growing. Then you stop,” Vandermolen said.

While Vandermolen is dedicating her life to learning, she is also healing. She spent a significant portion of her young adulthood as an Army nurse during the Vietnam War, serving two tours over two …