Rudy

A good plumber is one of the necessities of life. That is what we found when we met Rudy Bansagi.

He left Communist Hungary with only the clothes on his back. He risked his life wading through a cold, dark river at night to freedom in Austria.

Fortunately, he had a trade in Hungary. He was a plumber. The only problem was that he had a hard time getting into the union in Canada, so he did jobs on the side.

We discovered his abilities one Boxing Day. One of the toilets in our home was doing an impression of Old Faithful. Water was gushing everywhere. So we called Rudy.

He arrived and fixed it in no time flat.

What I really loved about Rudy is that he was always smiling when he did his work. Another of his traits was that he would rather fix a part than throw it out and buy a new one. Back in Hungary, he explained, plumbing fixtures were not plentiful like in Canada. Often you had to take two broken taps, for example, and salvage the parts to make one good one.

He had the ability to take something broken and breathe new life into it. He also took pride in his work. One time, he didn’t do the job to his satisfaction. He came back and corrected the situation without charging me extra. He would stay with a job until it was finished.

His attitude was so refreshing in today’s world. How often do we throw things out when it could be repaired? Our throwaway society produces too much garbage.

Friendship is sort of like Rudy’s parts. There are times when it may become worn out. It would be easy to chuck it out, but true friendship repairs what is broken and it comes out stronger than ever. The trick is to make sure you keep your eyes on it so it doesn’t become too worn out that it can’t be repaired. Also, you should maintain it constantly, checking to see when there are leaks and repairing them instantly.