Twinless: A Ride Exceeded Its Destination

Rusty Perrone began writing this book two years following life changing events involving his twin brother, Randy. The Perrone Family run a fourth generation New Orleans Italian food distribution buisiness with both the business and the city playing central roles in this story.

The Life of identical twins is fundamentally different from others: they look alike, act alike, speak alike, think alike, and mysteriously even anticipate each other's emotions. Perrone demonstrates these phenomena, some of which make us laugh, some make us cry, and some leave us wondering.

This story helps us better understand the mystery of an identical genetic prescription carried in two seperate bodies. Although in utero such persons are identical, the process of their differentiating and becoming instict albeit similar individuals starts before birth and continues throughout adulthood. Rusty and Randy Perrone are mirrors of each other and of this process. The shenanigans of childhood, the perils of adolescence, and the trials, tribulations, and tragedies of adulthood described here prove that mistakes can be teachers, friends and enemies can be camouflaged one from the other, and tragedy can be survived.

This story of an evolution from childhood to adulthood and from grieving to surviving teaches us what it means to be Italian-American, and to be a family, all while sharing with us the storms, traditions, customs, and color of one of America's most historic and unique cities.

Russell (Rusty) Perrone is a millennial Italian American native New Orleanian with a thousand interests. Most relative to TWINLESS he was born an identical twin, with Randy Perrone being his twin brother. Like most identical twins Rusty and Randy did most things alike and most things together until their mid to late twenties when Randy migrated toward writing and playing music and painting, and Rusty toward helping run the Perrone Family's fourth generation New Orleans Italian food distribution business, launching an expansion of the business and working to sail that ship through rough waters. Following graduation from Brother Martin High School in New Orleans, Rusty attended and graduated from Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans, appropriate for a Catholic Italian American family offspring, before, during, and after which he traveled the world, with a not-surprising interest in Italy, where his family not only have their roots but also long term business associates. Rusty and his wife, Cristy, are both native to Louisiana, and are busy raising a family of three children in all the traditions and customs of Louisiana and New Orleans. When not tending the business, raising a family, or writing this book, Rusty like his twin Randy plays guitar and sings, although admittedly in the shadow of his very talented twin who has been his inspiration in this and so many other life adventures. As a young man, not even at middle age yet, he has lived, enjoyed, and suffered the highs and lows of the life of an identical twin, a circumstance which is the core of his being and experience. He has touched bottom and risen from from it with persistence, patience, and dedication to the things that matter most in life with loyalty and support both from and to family at each unexpected turn. If there is a glue that has held all the pieces of Rusty's life together, it is his positive attitude which is illustrated by a slow and careful reading of his story, TWINLESS.

Jay Hoecker, MD, originally from Texas, has lived and either trained or practiced in Texas, Missouri, Connecticut, and since 1989, Minnesota. Pertinent to the book TWINLESS he studied physiology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, during which time he became familiar with New Orleans and some of the Cajun country of Louisiana. After medical school in San Antonio, he trained in pediatrics at Washington University's St.Louis Children's Hospital before returning to Texas to do a fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at M.D.Anderson Cancer Center, a place which also became known to his co-author Randell Perrone. Meeting by serendipity Jay Hoecker and Rusty Perrone began a project together, the result of which was TWINLESS as well as a unique and special friendship. Dr. Hoecker's career cut across the spectrum of pediatric medicine from basic science bench research (University of Texas Medical School, Houston), to in-patient pediatrics (Waterbury Hospital, Waterbury, CT), to community pediatrics primary care, pediatric infectious disease consultation, and child abuse recognition and management (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN). Before and following retirement from clinical practice at Mayo Clinic he has edited patient education material for Mayo Clinic's patient education web site, MayoClinic.org, in addition to owning a mediation practice in which he mediates healthcare disputes between patients and their healthcare providers. In retirement his clinical pro bono practice has been centered in a school clinic within an alternative high school in Rochester, and medical mission trips to northern Baja, Mexico. Having a life long passion for writing, when the unplanned and unexpected opportunity arose in 2015 to collaborate with Rusty Perrone to write a memoir of Rusty's life dealing with the relationship of identical twins, he did not hesitate and proceeded to have one of the most rewarding experiences of his life, sharing the writing of Twinless. Hoecker is married, lives in Rochester, MN, and has a grown daughter and son.