Not too long ago, I was washing my face with the water going full blast. My eyes were closed as I splashed the water, rinsing the last of soap and makeup away, when I felt the water spraying on my neck and chest. The plastic aerator in the faucet had broken, leaving the screw-in portion of the aerator stuck. The screw-on end of the faucet was also stuck with hard water calcifications, so I couldn’t twist it off. How do I fix this? I thought to myself. And next, What would my dad do?
My dad died in March this year. He was a fixer, someone who liked to tear things apart and make them work again. When we lived not too far away from him and my mom, I often called him to take a look at something that wasn’t working, and most of the time, he was able to fix it. It wasn’t always easy, and he didn’t always nail it on the first try. But he persevered, and eventually, whatever was broken got tired of being broken and gave into his efforts. I tried watching him as he worked on my household projects, learning odds and ends. Sometimes I helped though I suspect my helping was an accommodation or a teaching experience more than a real contribution to the repair. He was creating a legacy, whether he knew it or not. He was showing me some practical things, but mostly, he was giving me confidence that thinking through problems, doing some research, and persevering was enough. Sometimes it is all that is needed.
I found a plastic bag and rubber band, and I filled the plastic bag with white vinegar, strapping it to the faucet with the tip submerged for a few hours, something my dad had shown me that removed hard water deposits. I looked on YouTube and was pleased to see that others had broken aerators stuck in their faucets – “Misery loves company,” you know. They suggested using needle-nose pliers and wedging them, opened wide, into the aerator to twist it out. This ended up breaking the aerator into more pieces. I soaked the faucet with the white vinegar for a few hours more, and later, I was able to unscrew the tip and remove the remains of the aerator. With Amazon’s help, I located another plastic aerator, and within days, my faucet was running normally.
We might not consider the legacy we’re leaving behind to be made up of a plastic bag filled with white vinegar and a rubber band, and a broken faucet aerator doesn’t seem a likely prompt for reflection. But it’s moments like these when we realize the legacy loved ones have left us is the confidence that whatever problems we face, we will be able to figure them out.