Today is world AIDS day
This is a day to inform yourself and others about the Facts of HIV/AIDS and to make awareness a priority!
I am going to share a very personal story with you all today and I do hope you take it to heart.
In 1994 I lost one of my very best friends to AIDS.
His name was Brian, he was 21 years old and he lost his battle on 5-12-94.
Brian was brilliant, creative, sweet, kind, funny, honest and beautiful!
Brian was never an IV drug user, he was never sexually active...Brian was in a serious car accident when he was 13 years old and during livesaving surgery he required a blood transfusion. Ironic isn't it, what was meant to save him only postponed his death and made it all the more tragic.
I was friends with Brian for years, I watched his health decline and I sat with him in his final moments.
I watched ignorant people make assumptions about him, I watched friends dissapear, family fear touching him and medical staff panic at having to care for him. The sad thing is that 16 years later I still see and hear many of those same reactions or misconceptions. It makes me sad and angry! HIV/AIDS has no agenda, it doesn't care what you age, gender, race, religion, country, sexual prefrence or financial status is....it's a disease like a thousand others that kill everyday. And this one is preventable!
Brian was not a drug user, not a prostitute, not permiscuise...he was a virgin until the day he died, he never did any drugs so the insane treatment that he was somehow dirty was/Is sickening. He was not gay which back then was assumed to lead to HIV (another twisted ideal) he was not being punished by some cruel God for being wicked or sinfull...he was a little boy riding in the backseat of his parents car...that is all!
People feared getting AIDS and though information was available they turned a blind eye and shunned him as if he were the disease itself.
The availabilty of information has grown a million fold and yet we still need to inform, teach and make people aware. HIV/AIDS is still spreading at an alarming rate. Spread the awareness...offer information, facts, truths. Refer people to places like http://www.aids.gov/hiv-aids-basics/ or http://www.worldaidsday.org/
Update yourself on what you know or don't know about HIV/AIDS. Join a local orginazation, volunteer anything you can do to get the truth out to others is one more life saved.
I made a promise to Brian a couple of years before he died. I promised to never forget him. I have kept that promise and I ask you to help me remember him today.
I love you Bri.....until we meet again!
This story is sad and whats even more sad is the uneducated people in the world that make judgments without knowing the facts about this disease.
ReplyDeleteWow... That's a powerful story and quite tragic. Thank you for sharing. I know that cases like this don't happen often any more with all the screaning that they do on blood for donation, but such a tragedy when it does. I am sad that your friend had his accident during a time when we were all still learning about this virus/disease. And of course, our education continues. Thank you for sharing and adding to my education.
ReplyDeleteThat was so so sad :´(
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing it. I personally never had a close friend who had to go through it but I once took a sick homeless guy to the hospital and found out that he was already dying due to AIDS. He actually passed away the next day.
ReplyDeleteAIDS can be cruel but let it be cruel by itself. No victim deserves the society's cruelty together with it. I, too, get upset when people show ignorance towards the disease. Thanks again for sharing the story and links.
So sad :( I'm so glad you wrote something about it, I can't stand the injustice of it all. Poor Brian... I hope he's in a happier place now...
ReplyDeleteSo sad! and so terrible that it still has such a stigma in this day and age.
ReplyDeleteBut I do have to add that God is not a vengeful and cruel God, He does not take joy in seeing others suffer. The idea that people think He is is just devstating to me!
That is so sad. It sucks that people are still that closed minded that they automaticly think that if you have HIV/AIDS then you done something wrong.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Brian's story. I can't imagine how difficult that must have been for you to type.
ReplyDeleteI lived (and now work) in the gayborhood of Philadelphia. I've met many people living with HIV/AIDS and have felt the sadness of losing friends and neighbors.
Even with all the information out there, people can be afraid to give a person living with HIV/AIDS a hug or a handshake. That's one of the saddest things to me, that people suffering can be kept from human warmth and affection because of being unfairly stigmatized.
Wow.. that's a heavy story! I can only imagine how hard it must have been for him, being treated as something he wasn't.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this. My husband has a good friend who was beaten up as a kid by some thugs, and was given a transfusion because he is a hemophiliac. (this was in the early 80s) He ended up contracting HIV. Thank goodness he was a lucky one, and has lived with HIV for the last 25 years or so, has even married and had children. I don't understand why people jump to conclusions or treat people with HIV/AIDS so badly, they are people too.
ReplyDeleteThat was me with the <3.
ReplyDeleteOh wow... I teared up a little from that :'(
ReplyDeleteI too hate the way HIV/AIDS sufferers are looked at as dirty, nasty people. Many people do get it from irresponsible behavior, but so, so many get it by accident just like your friend. So sad. I do think they'll find a cure within our lifetime though, they've recently discovered a drug that is like 90% effective in preventing transmission.
Thank you for sharing this :( <3
ReplyDeleteThat was me with the <3.
ReplyDeleteSo sad :( I'm so glad you wrote something about it, I can't stand the injustice of it all. Poor Brian... I hope he's in a happier place now...
ReplyDeleteThis story is sad and whats even more sad is the uneducated people in the world that make judgments without knowing the facts about this disease.
ReplyDelete