Daddy, can I help?
My husband has always told me that there are four words that can strike fear in the heart of any man.
“Daddy, can I help?” He had been an HVAC tech for almost thirty years and he thought he had been in every situation.
He always told me that there wasn’t a furnace or air conditioning situation he hadn’t seen or experienced. Last night, he came home from an emergency call. The ringing phone awakened us at midnight. A family with two children had lost power, and their furnace wouldn’t turn on when the power came back on. My husband quickly dressed and headed out to help this family. I had to laugh when he returned two hours later. He was shaken, and he said he had never had such a horrible time trying to fix a furnace. It was a simple repair because he only had to hit the reset button. He then stuck around to make sure there were no repercussions from gas build-up. He was heading to the furnace room when the owner followed him downstairs. Right behind him was the four-year-old son. His first words were, ‘Daddy, can I help?’. My husband said he started shaking, thinking about all the times he had our sons ask that same question. He said that every time he tried to let them help, but he worried the entire time. He usually ended up with more work. Ultimately, something was messed up when they were done. The only thing that kept him from panicking was the look of panic on the dad’s face. He told his four-year-old that the man couldn’t fix the furnace with so many men watching.