You need to show the story because it doesn't say the story
In my life for the first time [and,] the image made me believe [of] my mother that I could change [were] the way things *were*.
remove and & of because it makes no sense in the context of the sentence and move were to the end of the sentence.
They all worked in similar rooms. Doctors in the 1700s were beginning to learn proper sanitation techniques like handwashing.
