To Err is Human...

Nate Lewis is eleven years old when in 1962 his father buys
him a shoeshine kit and sends him out into the neighborhood to peddle his
services. After failing to convince several of his peers' fathers that they
should pay him ten cents to do what their sons already do for free, he ventures
up the gravel driveway belonging to Mr. Howard, a reclusive but wealthy man
whom Nate and his family and friends have never met. It is shortly after
shinning Mr. Howard's shoes that Nate begins his enduring association with his
new friend and mentor. This new relationship between a grandfather-aged man who
has no grandchildren and three motherless children (Nate and his two younger
sisters) who have no grandfather brings two worlds and two pasts together that
have far more in common than either could have ever imagined and provides both
with a series of unforeseen opportunities to give and receive the most wondrous
gifts that life has to offer. (Word count: 98,759)