Meet Joe and Frank Anderson, identical twins and coming in at #5 and #6 in birth order to a family of ten children. While Frank reigns supreme as the older brother, Joe is a mere minutes younger and just as big of a personality as Frank. The two talk about their upbringing by mom Norene Karnes who was an incredibly dynamic woman who lived life out loud and taught her children to do the same.
The touching tribute to their mom includes the twins talking about how their mother taught them to love and how much her example translated into how they conduct themselves as husbands and father. Whether Norene was making clothes for them, carting one of the 7 boys off to yet another trip to the ER, or washing endless amounts of laundry, Norene never complained and was steadfast in her commitment to embrace joy in everything she did.
Not only did she have ten kids, but Norene also wrote for the local newspaper in Medina, Ohio, decided to go back to school to earn her nursing degree while battling breast cancer, and later decided to enroll in clown school. She used humor and hard work to express herself, but regularly relaxed through a regimen of hot tea and cross-stitch.
Frank and Joe are hilarious--the joy that they have for life and love for each other is infectious. How they discuss their own relationships as husbands and fathers is heartwarming and is exactly what a mother would want to hear from her grown son's hearts, minds, and mouths. Norene, of all of your accomplishments, your lasting legacy of love is seen in your children. (Trooping them to church and bringing the rosary to wrestling matches probably also contributed to your formula of success that launched your own decade of children into the world.)
I have always thought that Mary must have had a tremendously great sense of humor to put up with Jesus' antics and I can only think at the conclusion of this episode that Norene and our Queen Mother are sitting together in heaven wiping their eyes from laughing so hard.
