I remember volunteering for the Cascade AIDS Project in the worst years of the AIDS epidemic. I would ride a bus to the downtown office in Portland and get my orders -then hop back on the bus to head to my clients home. I had the privilege to meet the most amazing people and care for them in their final chapter of life. Each one a hero in my eyes - each one brave to face the horrors of AIDS without or limited medical treatment. Each one had lost their jobs because their employers feared that AIDS could be spread like the common cold. Each one was declined from medical insurance and relied completely on charitable non-profit organizations to provide for the expenses of what little medical service that was available. I saw more times than I want to remember of once sturdy healthy people reduced to skeletal features of sixty to eighty pounds in less than a years time. We were to serve them. I would bring them groceries and prepare nutritious yet bland meals that they could stomach. They typically had crippling mouth sores and ulcers of the esophagus and stomach and lost the ability to absorb nutrients. Between the chronic diarrhea and profuse sweating from the body battling the virus their intake of food was never enough to sustain life. I would read to them or just sit with them until they would fall asleep. While they were napping which was usually often from their sheer weakness. I would make my rounds through their home - cleaning, doing laundry and straightening up. I would bring in the mail and sort through what seemed important so when they were up from their nap I could read the mail to them - their eyesight would be generally poor mostly due to the ill effects of the virus. The Cascade AIDS Projects primary objective was to provide dignity to our clients through serving. These were people who where in dire need and the numbers of clients in the Portland area alone was in the thousands. We kept a professional attitude and referred to them as clients to the staff and on our paperwork, but from the first visit on we would become dear friends mostly because their own friends would have abandoned them. I went to every one of my friends funerals who were overcome by AIDS. There was usually an absence of family members at the funeral - some of my friends had lost everything. It was only then at the funeral that I allowed myself to cry and grieve. Every day that I visited my friends home, I would do my best to leave my sorrows at the door and attempted always to bring laughter and good conversations full of hope while they were alive. I would come home each evening mortified of the disease (the media was misinformed and generally spread fear instead of truth), but I went back each time because I knew if I didnt my friend would be alone - they would die alone. The world was ugly then and misinformed, prejudice and bigotry seem to cripple society. I didnt realize at that time later on in my life that I would unknowingly become infected from my boyfriend and years later in the second chapter of my life - I realized that I had not only been infected, but my health had declined into full blown AIDS. Please take a moment and read through this attached article and hear of the unsung heroes who where the fortunate few who survived more than dreadful disease, but prejudice and bigotry as well. I also encourage to support any good cause to help with AIDS awareness and assisting those who are surviving a life sentence of living with AIDS. fiftyisthenewfifty/growing-old-with-hiv/
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 09:38:59 +0000