Front Porch: Fix-it husband does his best to repair all broken things

My husband is a fixer.

No, not the mafia kind. He’s the wrench-wielding, screwdriver-toting kind who intuitively knows how to fix things.

He’s been on a roll in the waterworks department this week, starting with our tankless water heater. We’ve had the unit for 15 years, and Derek’s only had to replace one part. But when the heater began loudly moaning and groaning every time we used hot water, I worried.

“The neighbors are going to think our house is haunted,” I complained. “It’s so loud I can hear it in the gazebo, even with my music on!”

While my husband is an excellent fixer, he’s not a proactive one. He generally waits until something is well and truly broken before tackling it. When he wanted to soak in a hot bath after a day of yard work, and the best he got was a half-filled lukewarm tub, Derek decided the heater warranted immediate attention.

The next day our dining room table was littered with water heater guts.

“Bugs!” he said. “Bugs are getting sucked into the fan.”

He said some more things, but when Derek is in repairman mode, he’s pretty much unquotable in a family newspaper.

I don’t mind colorful language when the result is lots of lovely and quiet hot water.

Speaking of running water – it’s all well and good when you want it to run, but it’s awful when it’s a slow steady drip, coming from a valve on the above-mentioned tank.

I know this because my desk is near the tank. That valve has been steadily dripping for over a year. (Remember, Mr. Fixit is also Mr. LaterBaby.)

When the dishpan I put under the leaky valve began filling up rapidly, I alerted Derek.

“I used to empty it every couple of weeks; now I have to empty it every week! It’s dripping faster and faster!”

Crickets.

So, I videotaped the rapidly filling dishpan and texted it to Derek at work.

“If this doesn’t get fixed, we’ll have a flood when we leave town,” I typed.

The next morning there were doo-dads and thingy bobs all over the dining room table.

A few hours later – no more leak!

It’s lovely to write sans the annoying drip, drip accompaniment.

Then the knob on our bathroom fan stopped turning. When you’re taking hot showers, you need a fan to suck up all that steam.

As mentioned, Derek’s a fan of hot water, so the next morning the fan worked.

“How did you fix it?” I asked.

“Glue,” he replied.

Derek is the Glue Master. He knows exactly which kind to use in any given situation. Pro tip: It’s rarely Elmer’s school glue, which is usually what I offer when he yells, “WHERE’S THE GLUE?”

This happens frequently because while he’s an expert when it comes to glue and tools, he’s a novice at remembering where he put them.

When I praised his talents, Derek shrugged.

“I’m good at fixing things,” he said. “Just like my dad.”

Even strangers sense his abilities.

Recently, he was watering the yard, and a neighbor boy on a bike rolled up to the curb.

“Do you have a Band-Aid?” he asked. “I cut my finger and my mom doesn’t have any.”

You don’t raise four sons without a well-stocked first aid kit.

I’ve written about this boy’s older brother, Ricky. Many years ago, I encountered him when he got off the school bus at the wrong stop. He took my hand and together we found his house. After that, he frequently stopped to chat with us whenever we were outside – especially Derek. He often showed up with a broken skateboard or wonky bike and asked for help with repairs.

When he last saw him, Derek loaned him a wrench that had belonged to his dad and cautioned him to return it.

He didn’t.

I ran into Ricky two years ago. He said he was attending a school for kids with mental and behavioral health issues, and he guessed it was going OK.

We haven’t seen him since.

It was a small, inexpensive wrench, but it bothered Derek that Ricky didn’t return it.

“I wanted him to learn to respect tools and other people’s property,” he explained.

My husband can fix many things, but broken boys are tough to mend.

From the window, I watched Derek bandage the younger brother’s finger. The boy wiggled it, smiled and pedaled off.

I won’t be surprised if he starts bringing broken things by the house.

Derek will do his best to repair what he can.

That’s just what fixers do.

Cindy Hval can be reached at dchval@juno.com. Hval is the author of “War Bonds: Love Stories from the Greatest Generation” (Casemate Publishers, 2015) available at Auntie’s Bookstore and bookstores nationwide.