During the '20s, Dad worked hard to support our family, but was very little money left over.

One day, I noticed the sole was almost off one of his shoes and he was putting cardboard in its place so he could go to work.

After he went to bed that night, I quickly took his shoes and went out to the woodshed. Using a small ax, I cut an old inner tube into the shape of the sole and put holes in the rims of the shoes with an ice pick.

I sewed the new soles to the shoes with copper wire and put the cardboard back inside. Then I shined them with soot from the stove lids.

I'll never forget the look on Dad's face the next morning when he saw those shoes. He turned pale, and tears rolled down his cheeks. He went to work without saying a word.

That night, everyone kept looking at me. Dad said we had all learned a les-son--that as far as love is concerned, "Where there's a will, there's a way."

I'm now in my 80s, but whenever I think of that look on Dad's face, my heart still feels as if it will swell up and burst.