If I were to really tell a story about Nick Lonardo it would compete with War and Peace, a 1200- plus page epic – and given that I am not Russian, and my arthritic fingers couldn’t punch out even the Cliff Notes version – I will try and be brief. But then again, since a good slice of my genetic makeup is Irish, it will unlikely be brief and it will certainly include swearing.

The main theme of the story would be about those “affected by Nick’s effect” and additionally, how few people there are who are aware of this “verb by noun” language enigma in regard to his professional career. I explain it as such; there are two principal reasons for why so few. Firstly, he is not an arrogant big mouth (i.e. asshole), and secondly, he is now and has always been principally concerned about others.

To further explain why so few are aware: a hefty portion of the people affected by Nick are from the U (both past and current); those he worked with, the people he treated, and the people he taught. These lucky souls were on the receiving end of wisdom and compassion and at the time could neither acknowledge what Nick provided them, for various understandable reasons, or they were inherently incapable of recognizing actual brilliance unless it took the form of a Game of Thrones character. The countless others were silent and invisible patients, who benefited enormously from the knowledge delivered via Nick’s research and publications. His expertise that filtered into the medical literature has saved lives, provided safer patient care, and this “Nick effect” has absolutely reached around the globe.

To round out the overarching story, it needs to draw on Nick’s love of research. For those in any type of research they will all agree that it can be many things, but mostly it is a continual cycle of getting kicked in the ass. To stick with it requires a thesaurus full of physical and emotional attributes to describe. In Nick’s case the research wasn’t even something required of him, he chose to do it, and, in this case, there is only one reason he chose it, because for him, it was the right thing to do. The man does indeed like a challenge.

So – this, my actual personal, story about Nick is really a modern-day fairy tale. Once upon a time a middle-aged lesbian, short in stature, born in Cleveland (land of “burning rivers”), of Irish- German lineage, met a younger man, born in Las Vegas (land of “sin”), of Italian descent. Nick’s family line had once been a force within Cleveland, Mary’s father made numerous trips to Vegas casinos to stretch his bladder tone at the blackjack tables. Their cosmic worlds of “fire and sin” collided, the crossover of their lives became apparent. It is certain that the DNA of each family brushed up against one another somewhere along the space time continuum. Many other events lined up – and finally Nick and Mary found each other in Utah, of all places. If the ensuing relationship had a Hollywood name, it might be “Lo-Mo” – but that convenient use of letters just doesn’t work. With the years of excel spreadsheets and enormous data files behind us, and while not statistically significant, their differences and hard work have definitely and currently resulted in a happily ever after tale.

Happiest Birthday Nick!!

From your LGBTQ (liberal, gal, best, tenacious, quixotic) wife – of sorts (it is Utah!).