It was a day in autumn that three boys came home from school to find their mother on the floor of their family home at Lake Drive in Chicago. Their mother had passed away earlier that day and it had been quite a shock to them. With three boys … Steven, age fourteen, Michael, age seventeen, and Tommy, age ten … what were they to do? Mick Tierney, 76, and his three boys took the death of Mrs. Tierney very hard and so it was decided that the y would get out of Chicago as soon as possible.

There is a program that the World Press has whereby they exchange reporters in the reporting family with other members of the World Press. In this instance, it was the Aften Postem, one of the major daily newspapers in Oslo, Norway.

The family came to Oslo on a chilly day that November and settled in their apartment in Frogner Park. They also arranged to make an appointment with the head master of the school that the boys were to attend. Because of the difference in the system, the two older boys would have to repeat the ninth grade. Steven was entering his junior year while Michael was entering his senior year. Neither wanted to repeat these years so it was decided that they would return to America to comp lete their education.

Tommy, on the other hand, was very enthusiastic about his new friends and chose to live in Norway. His mind was living in a country that had a King and a royal palace. Everyday after school, he would get on his red bike and go to the palace gate to look at King Olaf’s home. The King was a very gentle man who was accessible to almost all his subjects. From his third floor office, he could see the grounds of his palace.

In the course of his duties he would often look out his window and that is how he came to notice the boy and his red bike. His curiosity got the better of him and he called down asking the boy to come to his office because he wanted to ask him what he wanted. To his surprise, all Tommy wanted was to know what it was like to live in a palace.

Two months later, there was a reception at the palace whereby all of the foreign reporters were invited. The King’s Chancellor called out the names of the invited guests and when he came to the name “Tierney”, the King stopped him and asked Mr. Tierney to approach the throne. “Are you a relative of Tommy Tierney?” Then Mick wondered what Tommy had done to gain such notoriety from the King. Mr. Tierney, quietly responded that yes, he was a relative of Tommy. The King responded with “He is such a wonderful boy. I have never met anyone like him.” When Mr. Tierney came home from the office that evening, he asked Tommy , how and when he met the King. Tommy responded that he felt the King was a nice fellow. Mr. Tierney, confused asked Tommy why he never mentioned that he had met the King and Tommy answered “You didn’t ask me!”