Ella Lewis stood near the back door of her home on Wilroy Road Wednesday morning and tried not to get emotional.

“I tend not to count on anything,” Lewis said. “I don’t want to believe it until it’s happening.”

But on Wednesday morning, something she had been in need of for more than five years was happening. She was watching workers from R.S. Andrews of Tidewater unload a new heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit from a truck, soon to be installed next to her home.

“It’s really like a miracle,” Lewis said.

However, Lewis is no stranger to miracles. Her 15-year-old daughter, Amanda, has overcome a lot.

“They came to us so many times when she was little and told us she might die,” Lewis said.

Amanda was born with myeloproliferative disorder, which is a rare blood disorder in which blood cells are produced abnormally. At 8 months old, she started chemotherapy treatment for leukemia and was on that for eight months, but she has been in remission since then.

Amanda also has Down syndrome and autism. Her mother has been her caregiver for most of her life, so she has mostly been unable to work.

So when her HVAC unit broke down about five or six years ago, she didn’t have the money to replace it. She obtained space heaters and window air-conditioning units and closed off a couple of rooms to help conserve energy.

However, that soon had a deleterious effect on her home. The plaster in those rooms peeled off the walls, and the floor developed mold due to the moisture and lack of air circulation. A metal filing cabinet rusted sitting in one of those rooms due to the moisture.

Seeing what the lack of central HVAC had done to her older sister’s home, Jacqui Riddick decided to nominate her for the ARS Cares program after she saw a television commercial for R.S. Andrews. The company, based in Chesapeake, is owned by American Residential Services, based in Memphis, Tenn.

Every quarter, the ARS Cares program provides a central HVAC unit or, for those who have other forms of heat, an air-conditioning unit for those in need.

“She’s always put everyone else ahead of herself,” Riddick said of her older sister. “My mom passed when I was 8, and she stepped up and took care of us, so she didn’t get to do a lot of things as a teenager. She’s had some hard times with Amanda, and she’s always put Amanda first. She’s always held onto her faith.”

Riddick said she was thrilled to hear that her nomination would result in her sister getting a new HVAC unit.

“Sometimes, God puts things in your path,” Riddick said. “He made a way out of nowhere.”
Now that Amanda has an assistant, Lewis has been looking to get back to work lately.

“It’s a job in itself,” Lewis said of being a caregiver. “It’s hard to get back into the workforce when you don’t have anywhere else on your resume.”

However, Lewis recently was able to get work through an AARP program that places people in employment. Between that and the new HVAC unit, things are looking up.

The new unit was donated by Carrier. Employees also planned to install a new thermostat and new air filter, clean vents and check ductwork by the time they left Wednesday.

Nathan Bolton, general manager of R.S. Andrews, said the workers enjoy taking part in the ARS Cares program.

“The employees are just thrilled to be a part of it in some way,” he said. “It’s cool.”