Last night she said to me, “I spend time speaking to people my age about being HIV positive.” Not for the full 10 hours a week that she volunteers, but it is part of what she does for Good Samaritan Project in my town. It has been part of what she’s done nationwide for over well over a decade.
Jane Fowler is the face of HIV/AIDS for me as I recognize World AIDS Day today. At an age “well over 50,” she contracted HIV from a partner. She knew the man, but clearly not everything about him.
She changed my life last night, and I told her so. She said, “sometimes I don’t know if I’m making a difference, but I speak up anyway.” I told her, fully choked up and with tears in my eyes, that she made a difference in me and I will never be the same. I barely got the words out.
We spoke about why I was involved with the AIDS fight in Kansas City. We spoke of my son and my wish for his children to live in an AIDS-free generation. We spoke of the holidays with her children. We spoke of mutual friends. We spoke of caring and of love.
Then I checked her out and wrapped her presents. All of this took place where I work. At the counter and in front of the Christmas tree. With people in clear hearing range.
When you hide from AIDS – when you whisper and turn your head – you give it power to make stigma and hate. But if you are like Jane, you speak up and you tell your story over and over until you fear you aren’t making a difference.
And that’s exactly when grace steps in and you change another life. Like mine was changed last night.
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this is going to make me think twice about any “whispering” i do in the future.
thank you.
It hits anyone, at any time. Thank you, STUFF, for being such compassionate, wonderful warriors in this fight. We WILL have an AIDS-free generation.