I’m writing this at the risk of embarrasing someone I really admire.  I’m sure you’ll understand why.  It’s because an ordinary human being has done something extraordinary, and I’m grateful.

 This adventure begins with a leaky window.  After one phenomenal thunder storm last summer, one of our basement window wells filled with water, which leaked under the window into our storage room.  We thought we fixed the problem, but it happened again this Spring.

Again we thought we had fixed the problem, but the window well filled and leaked into our basement five separate times between April and this past week.  On top of that, a pipe fitting burst in a wall behind our upstairs bathroom.  It soaked an upstairs closet and ruined an entire wall in the room below it before we could get it stopped.

By the beginning of this past week, my family was nearing our patience limit.  Besides having almost everything in the basement stacked in the middle of our family room, we had extensive repairs to make and no idea where to get started. 

In stepped our friend.  We have known him for a couple of years now but never have had the opportunity to spend much time with him.  That changed the minute he knew we were in trouble.  He came over the next day, helped us know where to get started and promised to come back to help us get the work done.

That was two days ago.  Tonight he was back with a load of supplies and tools.  Within a couple of hours, he helped us fix our window well–for good, this time–and helped us mud and tape the new sheetrock in our basement.  He didn’t want anything in return but the joy of helping someone out and the joy of doing a good job.  

He did both.  It’s obvious he’s a man who knows what he’s doing, that he cares about his work and that he cares about other people.  All of the work he did for us was done on his own time. 

“He never does a job unless he does it a hundred and ten percent,” his wife told me, and I can see she’s right. 

The great thing about this guy is that he’s a genuine North Dakota person.  He’s the kind of person I’m talking about when I say North Dakotans are great people with a reputation for working hard.

I can’t say his name.  But you might already know a North Dakotan like this guy.