ad made me, me. Mom made me, me. My brother made me, me.

I’m a lot like my dad: bull-headed, arrogant, stubborn. Things just need to be done and just do it. I learned a lot of compassion from both of my parents. I’ve always seen them helping other people. People lived with us all the time that couldn’t make it. I always thought I had the strongest parents of their siblings. I chose to be strongest of my siblings.

I grew up fast. My mother came from a household of fifteen kids and my father came from a household of eight. I’m used to having lots of cousins and lots of other people around and having to take care of other people.

You can call me a plumber, but some of the things you do aren’t plumbing. They may call it plumbing, but they just want you to solve their problem. Hook up this machine. Solve my problem. This is overflowing. Solve my problem. I just solve problems. When you fix her faucet and you know she’s 80 years old, it can’t be stiff. I know their sewer is backed up and all over their basement, it doesn’t kill me to wash it down and you know it would bother her to do it. There’s right and there’s wrong.

I just help people. If you come to me and you really need help and you ask me for help, I really can’t tell you no. I don’t like other people being in pain. If you tell me your problem, it’s no longer just your problem – it’s my problem too.

I have a philosophy of life. Work just happens to be part of life. My philosophy of life: harm nobody, do what you can, and if it needs to be done, do it. If it needs to be done, it’s my job as much as anybody else’s. Be nice to people, be there when people need you. Expect people to be there when you need them. And forgive them when they can’t be, but don’t let it keep happening.

Stories from the Field