“Dan will always be my baby brother”

Tomorrow, the 19th, marks one week since Dan Lardner has been gone. And proportionately, the number of articles that either talk nonsense about him or even copy the text of someone (like me) who takes journalism seriously increases. Moved as much by my professionalism as my sadness, I went after Dan’s own family’s version about everything. And I was very happy when I was so well accepted, especially by Nora, the older “twin” sister (It must be said that Dan left his mother and sister, since his father, Michael, lost a battle with cancer last year).

I know that there is a lot of speculation regarding the cause of Dan’s death, as Dan himself has never hidden his internal struggle with drug addiction. But so far, there is no official cause of death, according to his sister. As you may know, Dan was the guest of honor on Evan Dando’s US tour with the Psychedelic Furs this semester, having to drop out for reasons that are still unclear. Just over a month later he lost his life. Could this tragedy have happened because he suddenly left the tour? Probably not, Nora believes.

Touring with Evan Dando will be some of the last and most beautiful memories I hold onto. We drove to the opening show together listening to The Replacements.

Nora Lardner

Nora on her baby brother Dan Lardner

RC – Hi, Nora. Thanks for talking to us.

NL – I appreciate you allowing my mother and I to comment instead of posting nonsense.

RC – So, are you and Dan twins?

NL – We aren’t actually twins but people always thought we were for some reason. I’m 2 years 9 months older. Very good planning on my parents side. 

RC – What are the fondest memories you have of Dan?

NL – Dan will always be my baby brother. We annoyed each other and argued as kids. Thinking back our friendship grew in high school when we oddly hung out in parallel friend groups and started hanging out sneaking out to parties, smoking cigarettes, driving around. On the day I graduated Dan and I drove around blasting and scream singing: growing up and I’m fine it was this strange sense of the world being ok. On my 30th birthday there was a massive blizzard with travel alerts all day I was in my apartment alone all day. It was pretty fun, people had been ordering me food all day, Dan decided to come from the East Village we went to a movie, then snuck into another. We ended up hanging out all night eating cake.

RC – Tell us something few people knew about Dan.

NL – Something only very close friends knew was how much Dan loved animals. He adopted 2 cats who were like his children and a few raccoons adopted him at my parents house.

RC – Also, I guess I can’t run away from the question, but actually how did Dan died? 

NL – The COD is still pending. We have no information to share at this point. 

RC – Let’s talk about your dad. If you could tell me how his passing, last year, impacted Dan’s life I would appreciate it. 

NL – I keep listening to the QTY song “Michael” – Michael was our dad and the song captures a time in our lives, young and a little reckless but the wonder of youthful experimentation. Dan, don’t worry you can keep wearing my jeans but instead of getting wrecked mom and I will hang with the cats…. Our Dad did die last July. He had a 3 month battle with cancer. Our hearts broke everyday, Dan spent the past 11 months honoring our father by writing songs. 

RC – Are you preparing any tribute for your brother?

NL – We will be planning a celebration to honor Dan soon. For now my mom and I are spending some time together honoring his memory with some of our closest friends and family. 

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