NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Doe Hentschel had just accepted a job as the dean of extended and continuing education at the University of Connecticut when she broke both her elbows in a bicycle crash.

She spent the next six months with her arms in a cast, alongside her daughter who was preparing to start college.

“And whenever anybody says what was it like, we both burst out laughing,” she said. “I think through it because we found the things to laugh about.”

Hentschel memorializes that time in her book, Look, Ma! No Hands!: Life’s Lessons Learned the Hard Way, which was published on her 80th birthday.

Watch the full interview in the player above.