Google sewing machine manuals and see if you can get one.

Most people are honest, but many are inclined to express hunches as if they were fact. Instead of this kind of story, what is much more common is for sellers to say it "works fine" when what they mean is the motor ran and the needle went up and down. They might not have a clue how to thread it.

Maybe she just did not have time to use it..That happens to a lot of people....

My great grandmother was a seamstress/milliner, my grandmother (her daughter) did not like sewing, she didn't have to as long as her mother was alive. And then she bought my mother a nice sewing machine for a wedding present so my mother could repair things for her. My grandmother never understood cutting fabric apart, only to sew it back together. And alterations could be paid for so she didn't need to sew anything more than a loose button. My mother sewed out of necessity - my dad said his mother never had a sewing machine because they were too poor while he was growing up so she mended by hand.

My mother gave me her 15-91 and then bought a small Brother machine at Walmart that she never uses. She had it in case she needed to mend something, but never got it out of the box. She was afraid she would be able to thread the needle. My niece has that machine now - she uses it quite a bit to make costumes for her kids.

I did see a TV show a few years ago about the history of the sewing machine and they said the home sewing machine was the second largest expense after the family car up to the 1950's. Now there are a lot of homes that don't even have them. (Neither of my daughters have or want a machine. Where did I go wrong?)