Author: Abby Nardo

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Memory submitted by MaryAnne Gaunt

When did you meet Mickey?
1974

Where did you meet him?
Morningside/Atlanta

Memory of Mickey
I’ve known the Nardos since the 70s when we were neighbors and in the same babysitting co-op. Some time around the late 70s or early 80s, Mickey and Sharon hosted a work party to prepare for the annual Pig Roast for the Morningside-Lenox Park neighborhood (MLPA). Mickey and Andy Lipscomb were a couple of the “old guys” who conceived of and implemented the event which required sleeping out all night in a neighborhood park where the pig was roasting in a hole and the men enjoyed the company of their kids, beverages and probably a cigar or two.

So at the work party, while others shredded the cabbage for slaw, or prepared beans, or BBQ sauces, Mickey and I were given the job of adding the best ingredient of the Brunswick Stew. We were charged with separating the “edibles” from the rest of the pig head that just came out of the pressure cooker. Andy, who was almost overcome by the odor after opening the cooker, stood in the background to watch. The smell was outrageous. The many undefinables that we dug out of the pot certainly were nasty, but when I pulled out a well formed pig ear, that almost was my undoing. In the middle of one of those uncontrollable, involuntary shudders, that often comes with a gag reflex, I looked up at Mickey. His look of steadfast resolve and calm demeanor, despite the gasp from Andy far behind in the shadows, stifled any negative response on my part. And so we both carried on without words until the pot was cleared with morsels and stuff divided.

I remember that look, that even hinted of his own revulsion; which helped me move on in spite of all my desire to do otherwise. I know that look has calmed me many times, over the years, when I might have preferred a different response besides steadfast resolve. That look changed my makeup forever. Thank you Mickey. It was an honor to know you.

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Memory submitted by Carole Maddux

When did you meet Mickey?
2009

Where did you meet him?
Good Samaritan Health & Wellness Center

Memory of Mickey
I had the honor of working with Mickey for almost 8 years. I saw him perform miracles with patients who had been sentenced to the hell of imprisonment in mental illness. They broke free of their bonds and learned what joy could feel like. Some of that was due to his great intellect and understanding of psycho-pharmaceuticals—both how to use them and when not to. But most of that was that the patients truly knew that he cared, wasn’t judging them, and would advocate for them.

In the world that Good Samaritan serves, non-judgmental caring and advocacy can be rare—especially among the poor and mentally ill. I think few of us can imagine what a light-filled God-send that is to our patients. They will all miss him very much.

As will I. I have lost a great partner in the fight to bring good health and quality of life to the people we serve. Someone who got it. I don’t know what we will do without him.

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Memory submitted by Allison Williams

When did you meet Mickey?
1966

Where did you meet him?
When I was in diapers (as a child). Second Cousin-in-law

Memory of Mickey
Mickey was an honest, kind, intelligent, engaging, and generous man. I enjoyed talking and hanging with him as I did with Sharon and Abby. They were bold and brave enough to take me and my newborn son into their home after my husband was hospitalized in Atlanta due to a massive head injury (car accident). Mickey’s knowledge of head injuries and brain afflictions was reassuring and comforting during a time when unknown variables were plenty.
Although a trying season for me and my family, I am forever grateful to Mickey, Sharon, and Abby for their love and compassion. Thank you!

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Memory submitted by Patrick Cronin

When did you meet Mickey?
1985

Where did you meet him?
He was my uncle (my mother’s (Anna Nardo) brother)

Memory of Mickey
My strongest memories of my Uncle Mickey are wrapped up with the house in Atlanta that we visited a few times on road-trips from Louisiana during my childhood. I mostly remember the smell of the house, the steep and narrow hill you had to back down to get out of the driveway and feeling like my Uncle Mickey was cool, smart and creative and that I was proud he was my uncle. As many people have noted, Uncle Mickey was wonderful at playing with children—we once built a robot that looked like a little sphere on wheels with a proboscis that sensed when it hit a wall and would cause the robot to back up, turn 90 degrees to the right and continue on its way. I am not sure we ever attempted the “sword-art” that others have mentioned, but I vaguely remember doing something with those little parasols that you put in drinks. I also have a hazy recollection of an impulse purchase of a crossbow (perhaps to take out small critters invading the back yard?)—though maybe that was just a story I heard. Perhaps me and my sister Kate had a bit too much fun when we visited him as kids. We would be inconsolable at the end of the night when it was time to go to sleep—he once handed us off to my parents saying “I have failure to calm down”.

As I grew up, our visits to Atlanta became less frequent, but Uncle Mickey remained a powerful force in my life— as a mythical but familiar figure and as an actual person. I recognized myself in what I knew or heard about him: multiple (often strange) projects going at once, stubbornness, the desire to help people talk and work through issues they are facing, a long and slightly-winding path to a career and the tendency of Nardos to look more like Nardos as they get older. We exchanged books on meditation, and just as he was there for my sister Kate when she needed his help, he was there when I needed help during a few crucial and difficult moments of my adolescence. My last memory of my Uncle Mickey was simply sitting with him next to the turkey he was smoking for our Thanksgiving with Abby, Christian and Aunt Sharon in North Carolina.

Now that he is gone, I am sad because a crucial part of my family is gone. But although he is no longer physically here, I will always feel his presence; and having read the outpouring of support and affection from the members of all of the different communities he been a part of and has helped over the years, I take comfort from knowing that his presence will continue to be felt by all of us who have been lucky enough to have been part of his life.

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Memory submitted by Adam

When did you meet Mickey?
1973

Where did you meet him?
Family friend

Memory of Mickey
Mickey had a gift for talking to and listening to kids. He never talked down to them, never condescended.

I cannot express enough what a gift that was to the shy, dorky, awkward kid I was.

My earliest Mickey Memory: when I was still in elementary school, my parents had left me at the Nardo’s so they could go do some Mysterious Adult Thing That Was Beyond My Ken. I had brought a couple of library books with me, and prepared to hole up in a corner and read, as I often did when left to my own devices. I’d been reading for just a few minutes when Mickey said, “Let’s make potato chips! Come on.” I was amazed – I’d never heard you could do that at home, so I went. For the next hour or so, we sliced potatoes and dropped them in hot oil, then salted and ate them while they were still hot and crispy.

My parents tried, but couldn’t always connect with me about my passions. I had interests very different from theirs, so sometimes I felt I was speaking another language when I tried to share the excitement I had for things like comic books, D&D and the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Mickey was an adult that I could talk to about those things without feeling like a weirdo. Given the bullying I experienced in elementary school, that helped me overcome a lot of the anxiety I suffered as a kid and be a little more fearless than before.

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Memory submitted by Jim Swartley

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
Lakenheath

Memory of Mickey
Mickey was my “go to guy”. When I was a newly commissioned general medical officer in the Air Force he was always there to back me up or correct my errors while in England. Since then I have seen him most summers on our numerous TGE vacations. He was always available to answer personal medical questions over the years including encouraging me to have an MRI when I had a headache which turned out to be a subdural hematoma which needed treatment. He also gave me appropriate advise regarding a defibrillator after my heart attack. All this came after he was a “shrink” not an internist. But I always valued his opinion and will miss that.

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Memory submitted by Steven Reidbord

When did you meet Mickey?

Where did you meet him?
1BOM

Memory of Mickey
I greatly respected Mickey Nardo’s approach to psychiatry, which animated his blog and gave it heart. He proved that thoughtful criticism can arise from careful analysis flavored with wisdom and experience, and that it can be presented respectfully, without polemics and theatrics. Mickey had a knack for slamming the hypocritical and self-serving without slamming the profession he clearly loved. I was particularly impressed by his close reading of the literature, and by his ability to attend to minute details of research design and presentation. Mickey was, in all these ways, a colleague I looked up to and admired.

There are plenty of defenders of today’s mainstream psychiatry, and many critics as well. And there are countless others who don’t care one way or the other. But there was only one Dr. Nardo, who lent both his heart and brain to improving our field. I’m glad to have known him, if only online.

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Memory submitted by Carl Mahoney

When did you meet Mickey?
1971

Where did you meet him?
USAF Hospital, RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk, England

Memory of Mickey
I was watching “Eyes on the Prize” last night and could hardly stop thinking about friend Mickey. I remember probing him after dinners at Lidgate Hall to explain for me what I needed to know about the Civil Rights movement in America. You see, I was 12 when LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1964. My worldview was perfectly solipsistic while friend Mickey had been paying attention throughout the period. By the time he and Sharon “adopted” me, I was 19 and beginning to pay attention and certainly had impressions and concerns of the then current social and political milieu (Richard Nixon was our Commander in Chief for goodness sake!). As all who have contributed to these pages will attest, Mickey’s assessment of very nearly anything at all was thorough, measured, well supported with data , engaging and, though he might be ill-at-ease with this characterization, NEVER wrong!

I enjoyed a lot of quality time with Mickey, Sharon, and Abby back then and it has been an ongoing and much cherished gift across the lifespan. In keeping with a theme noted by other contributors, I include photos of Mickey and my ‘chilren (as Al would say). On 10/28/98, Dr. Mickey arrived in the delivery room a few minutes after my son, Eric emerged from the womb…he’d brought a sack of fried chicken from the Church’s up the street from the hospital in Decatur! I love the picture of Mickey and Kate doing crafts that Mickey brought along; he genuinely liked the company of children and they sure did reciprocate that sentiment.

Y’all should have been there the day he diagnosed a case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever in rural Suffolk, England! His brilliance shall not soon diminish given how much he gave to so many. What a man, our friend Mickey.

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Memory submitted by Vicki Ledet

When did you meet Mickey?
1998

Where did you meet him?
Through Sharon

Memory of Mickey
Sharon and I met in Atlanta 20 years ago and through our friendship over the years I got to know Mickey. And over the years life would happen, she would pass the phone over to him, and he would help not only me, but at times my eldest daughter as well as a friend of mine whom he never met, to reason things out. Mickey had a remarkable way of cutting to the chase and helping us all sort out the next right steps to take. I can’t begin to count the # of times I’ve applied “Don’t accept an invitation to go crazy” in my life to wonderful effect. He never knew how much trouble he kept me out of! I’ll probably never really know how much trouble I kept me out of! And the ripple effect of Mickey’s insight has benefitted many more friends of mine who, when they’ve talked things over w/ me, heard me channel those words of wisdom. (I always gave him quote credit:) Like I said – Mickey knew how to cut to the chase. And he had a remarkable way about him. If Ruth and Billie were still walking among us they would no doubt be very enthusiastically adding to the Mickey stories. What I remember most about the very small piece of their friendship that I saw was how their faces would light up when he walked in and the energy in the room would practically sparkle. He was good to them and they loved him.

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Memory submitted by Howard Morland

When did you meet Mickey?
1958

Where did you meet him?
Chattanooga

Link

Memory of Mickey
My first real encounter with Mickey Nardo was in 1958 or so. I was giving him a ride home from school during our junior year at Chattanooga High School. It must have been a weekend, because I didn’t drive our family car on weekdays. I had moved into Mickey’s Brainerd neighborhood back during junior high, but owing to a religious experience (which nearly ruined my life) I shunned all members of the hell-raising crowd Mickey ran with. Then Mickey disappeared into the bowels of McCallie school, the local military prep school where his father was football coach. It was punishment for his delinquent ways, but he returned to public school after taking the cure. (I am paraphrasing his account.)

He did not share my obsession to participate in every possible non-sport extra-curricular activity, essentially the high school show business culture. But he was present on Stunt Night, the biggest show biz event of the year, where Miss Chattanooga High School was crowned. He escorted the winner. I escorted a member of the court. Anyway, back to the car ride, which seemed to be a bonding event. We agreed that each of us could be a straight-A student with as little as ten minutes of study per night. Neither of us was willing to put in that much study time outside of school. It was a mutual boast. We could do it, but we didn’t want to be that nerdy about it.

We completely lost touch after high school. I knew he went to medical school in Memphis, along with a small Chattanooga delegation. I set my sights on being an astronaut, but ended up being an ex-Air Force pilot war protester and hippy world traveler. We reconnected forty years after high school when the class of 1960 was reassembled in cyberspace.

The master of the new email list started peppering us with right-wing jokes. Since the entire email list was visible on every missive, a reply-all went to everybody. I objected to one of his jokes and called attention to the looming war with Iraq, to which I also objected. Mickey came to my defense, and the class soon sorted itself into liberals and conservatives. At least one classmate professed to be thrilled that the touted “leaders of tomorrow” were having a serious policy debate. But several people were offended, and a consensus was reached to use the list only for class reunion announcements and personal milestones, i.e., death announcements.

We continued our renewed friendship via email and visits every year or so. After one of our visits to Mickey and Sharon at their retirement log cabin in Jasper, we met my wife Barby’s former college roommate, Joanna Adams, in Atlanta. She had become a celebrated pastor of Presbyterian churches, and she knew Mickey well. She volunteered that when Mickey retired and moved to Jasper, Atlanta lost its best shrink.

We will miss him greatly, and we are astonished to learn how many other people will miss him as well. His friends are legion. He had a deep connection to many people. He was one of the smartest and most compassionate people you will ever meet. Goodbye, Mickey.